


Snowed In in Snowdin

by DarklingImp



Series: Fast Food Friends [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Addiction, Angst, Bunnies, Depression, Drama, Falling In Love, Family Fluff, Fast Food Workers, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Popularity, Self-Esteem Issues, Slice of Life, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Smoking, Snowed In, Sweet 'N Salty, nicepants - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-12 10:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 18,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5662537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarklingImp/pseuds/DarklingImp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to "You've Been a Wonderful Audience".</p><p>After Burgerpants returns to Hotland, he finds himself with some free time on his hands because his place of business is under renovations.  Unable to stop thinking about his first fan, he sets off to Snowdin for an impromptu visit -- only to get trapped due to a blizzard.  Thankfully, a skeleton points him in the direction of a place to stay...</p><p>(M/M, slow build romance)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Snowed In in Snowdin

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: This fic includes possible triggers regarding depression, self-esteem issues, potential codependancy, drug use, and addiction behaviors.
> 
>  
> 
> As previously stated, this takes up where "YBaWA" left off and the beginning of a slow build romance. Will be a long fic complete with lots of funny BP misadventures and equal parts fluff and mental introspective angst. I've given NCV and the Snowed Inn keeper names but BP still has yet to get one (feel free to make suggestions), but those will come into play later. 
> 
> This is set toward the beginning of the game so Frisk hasn't left the ruins yet. They probably won't show up in this fic but will in future versions of this series.

Burgerpants hardly ever got a day off, and hardly one that did not take an act of Asgore to even get, so when he returned to the restaurant to find it had been temporarily closed due to renovations, he didn’t know what to do with himself.

The first thing he did was sleep.

No, that’s not right. The VERY first thing he did was cringe, wondering just how much more trouble Mettaton’s newest pet project was going to cause him.

He learned from overhearing Mettaton’s melodramatic recounting to some lingering reporters that the robot had caught the place on fire while trying to entertain some of the patrons (I.e. run the place without Burgerpants). 

The second thing Burgerpants did was sleep.

Literally, he fell asleep standing up as he tried to make heads-or-tails of his boss’s latest stupid stunt.

When he finally made it to his room and got some sleep where he was supposed to, Burgerpants contemplated his situation. It had been so long since he had last had a day off that he really did not know where to start. Normally, this would be a good time to practice his acting skills, but any time he picked up one of the many screenplays or books he had lying around to find a decent dialogue to practice, he found he was still just too mentally drained from the workweek to have any sort of motivation.

He needed some inspiration.

Burgerpants fished around in his closet before finding his jacket. It was made of red leather and reminded him a bit too much of his uniform, but Burgerpants had kept this special find because it reminded him of a human celebrity he once saw a video of when he was just a kitten. While his dancing skills were nowhere near on par with the idol’s, he could pride himself on doing a decent…what was it? “Space Trot”? “Cosmic Canter”?

Whatever. It made him feel confidant, so that’s all that mattered.

It didn’t take as long as he thought to make his way to Snowdin. Of course by then, he was seriously contemplating his choice in wardrobe, because his awesome jacket was doing a very poor job of keeping out the elements. After about thirty minutes of wandering around in the snow, Burgerpants started to wonder if he would have been warmer just wrapping himself in aluminum foil. It didn’t help that he kept his fur trimmed down so he wouldn’t overheat while living in Hotland.

Shivering, he tugged the jacket around him and tried to mentally will the heat to stay. Unfortunately, the cat did not have a shred of fire magic in his veins, so the only thing he could do was take refuge under the awning of a nearby sentry station until the snow stopped falling and he could get his bearings.

No sooner than he leaned against the side of the booth, a low disembodied voice nearly frightened him out of his skin.

“hey. you lost or something?”

To his dying day, Burgerpants would claim he was never able to hit a note on the colatura soprano range. 

Anyone who stated otherwise was a dirty liar.

When Burgerpants managed to get his fur to lay flat again and the voice stopped chuckling, he realized that the sentry station was not as empty as he first thought. Inside was a short humanoid skeleton monster wearing a blue hoodie. Burgerpants realized the reason he hadn’t seen the monster was because he must have been taking a nap in the bottom of the booth, as his laughing gave away to a yawn and a stretch.

Burgerpants huffed, crossing his arms.

“what’s the matter?” the skeleton asked, his teeth flashing a wide grin. “ **cat** got your tongue?”

The glower the skeleton got in return only made him chuckle harder. Burgerpants regarded the monster with a questionable look.

“You’re the sentry?” It certainly didn’t look like this guy could hold his own against much. Maybe the Royal Guard was getting lax about who they employed nowadays? Not that a human in their right mind would trek through a frozen forest maze like Snowdin.

“you seem pretty **skel-ptical** about that,” the skeleton replied, laughing at his own pun. Noticing Burgerpants didn’t seem to share his joking fervor, he tsked and muttered lowly, “tough crowd today.” Resting his chin in one bony hand, he motioned around them. “so what’s a **cool cat** like you doing in a place like this? besides freezing, that is.”

Burgerpants could have punched his own brain for mentally adding a rim shot to yet another crummy joke.

“Out for a walk,” he told the skeleton.

The skeleton nodded. “certainly a good day for that. you know, what with the snow piling up and all. always fun, parading around in an oncoming blizzard.” 

Burgerpants grimaced. Snowdin was called that for a reason. He noted with no little rising panic that the sequin-sized flurries had become huge fluffy cotton balls of snowflakes and were showing no signs of stopping. The biting wind had picked up, but it wasn’t until a wannabe comedian had pointed it out that the pieces of the puzzle snapped into place.

_Man, I_ really _didn’t think this through…_

The skeleton shoved open the side door of the sentry station and stepped out into the snow.

“it’s really coming down now, huh?” he said looking skyward. Burgerpants grunted in reply. “well, it’s too late to head back to wherever you came from. you got a place to stay until this clears up?”

“Not really,” Burgerpants said.

If the skeleton had eyebrows, he would have raised one. Instead, Burgerpants saw one boney brow bone raise.

“hope you’re joking, pal.”

“Afraid not.” Burgerpants rubbed his arms. This whole situation was getting worse by the minute.

The skeleton simply shook his head. “tourists,” he muttered, then gestured for Burgerpants to follow. “c’mon, kid, there’s an inn not to far from here. i’d let ya’ stay with me but,” the skeleton scratched the back of his skull, “my brother and his friend were trying to cook, and…let’s just say we have one less oven and a lot more ventilation. it doesn’t bother us but you’d probably freeze, what with that wall letting the snow in and all.”

Burgerpants let out a sardonic laugh. “Sounds an awful lot like my boss.”

“oh? who’s that?”

“Mettaton.”

The skeleton raised the other brow bone. “no fooling?” Burgerpants shook his head. “heh, be careful telling Papyrus that. that’s my bro -- he’ll talk your head off. thinks that robot’s the greatest thing since the invention of spaghetti.”

 

 

The skeleton -- Sans -- turned out to be decent enough company, if you overlooked the constant punning. True to his word, there was an inn not so far from where the sentry station was located. It seemed like a straight shot, what with Sans leading the way, but Burgerpants had never been the most directionally tuned person in the world. He hated to admit it, but probably the only place he couldn’t get lost in was at work, and that was only because he could run the place in his sleep.

When he stepped inside, the feeling of warmth dug into his bones and nested there. He had to bite down a purr at feeling so warm and comfortable.

At the inn counter, there were two rabbit monsters -- a tall female and a small bunny. The bunny gave him a shy little wave, smiling as he sucked his thumb. The older rabbit waved to him. 

“Hello there,” she said cheerfully. “Welcome to the Snowed Inn.”

Burgerpants suppressed a groan. Did everyone have to make so many stupid puns here? He stepped up to the counter and asked if they had any vacancies. The rabbit lady smiled.

“As a matter of fact, we--”

The rabbit lady’s cheerful demeanor suddenly fell, her ears falling limp like wet noodles over her shoulders. 

“Oh, dear…”

“What?” Burgerpants asked, possibly a bit too gruffly, but there was only so much one monster could take. The rabbit lady gave him an apologetic smile.

“It seems like we are already booked up.”

Burgerpants wiped his paws over his face. “Fantastic,” he groaned. “Can I at least stay in the lobby? There’s a blizzard and I can’t get back to Hotland until it clears.” 

He prayed to whatever deities that were listening that the hotel owner would take pity on him. He really didn’t think he could handle staying out all night in a now blinding snowstorm. The howl of the wind was sending shivers up his spine just thinking about it.

The rabbit lady seemed to mull it over for a bit.

“Please,” Burgerpants said, his fur starting to stand from his rising desperation, “I won’t be in the way. I’ll even pay you. I’ll do work around the inn if I must! Just, please--”

The bunny popped his thumb out of his mouth. “Can you make veggie ‘buggles’?” 

Burgerpants raised an eyebrow, not understanding.

“Veggie _burgers_ ,” the rabbit lady corrected, picking the bunny up. She smiled fondly. “I’m sorry, he still has a little trouble with his ‘Rs’ sometimes.”

The cat felt an opportunity at hand. “It’s no problem,” he said confidently, before turning to the bunny, “and I can make the best veggie burgers around. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s making burgers of any sort.”

The rabbit woman’s eyes lit up. “In that case, would you be a dear…?” She motioned toward the adjacent room, likely the inn’s kitchen. “I never can quite make them without burning at least one side, and he’s such a picky eater. If you can make them, you can stay here free of charge.”

Burgerpants smiled at her, rolling his shoulders to shrug off his jacket.

“Lead the way, Ma’am.”


	2. Bluebell & the Bunnies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Burgerpants has awful luck! Or does he? I'd say any day you run into Sans when you aren't a human in genocide run is a good day; I hope I got his character right. He'll be back later. Seems ol' Sansy boy has a sixth sense about these things because he has pointed our favorite burned-out fast food worker in the right direction!
> 
> In this chapter, the Nice Cream vendor finally shows up! Also, bunnies. Lots and lots of bunnies.
> 
> ...I'm a sucker for cute bunnies. Hush, you.

Burgerpants groaned, blinking his bleary eyes against the semi-darkness surrounding him. He snuggled deeper into his blanket, relishing the contrast between toasty nose and chilled, uncovered ears.

_Wait…chilled ears?_

Hotland _never_ got cold. Just where was he--?

He sat up in a panic, nearly falling off the sofa in his haste. As his eyes adjusted to the soft light, he remembered that his trek had led him to Snowdin the day before, and that the light he was seeing was coming from the inn’s bathroom ( _Probably left on for the kids_ , he reasoned). 

Burgerpants leaned back against the couch, leaning his head against the top of the cushion so he could peer up at the ceiling and contemplate his strange misfortune.

_Why do things always go so wrong for me? All I wanted was to be a big star. But look where that got me. Sleeping on a couch in Snowdin, all because I thought there might be an off-hand chance that I might find the only decent audience I’ve had in ages._

The more he thought about that passionate rush he got from the emotive reactions of the Nice Cream vendor over his performance, the more he wanted to feel it again. He could understand why those human idols he once watched had spiraled into depression as their careers dwindled away to nothing. The high that came from performing for an audience and playing off said audience’s emotions was a thing of beauty, but the atmosphere it provoked -- the give and take of energy between the two forces -- was as fleeting a feeling as a drink of cold water on any given day in Hotland.

That rush was addicting. 

And it was the only bright spark he had in his life right now.

The cat let out a heavy sigh as he could feel the embrace of slumber slackening, letting the usual aches of tired feet, sore paws and achy shoulders take its place. He couldn’t remember the last time he wasn’t exhausted or mentally drained.

He couldn’t remember the last time his smile hadn’t been forced.

The last time he had _laughed_.

_Until that day…_

Burgerpants fluffed down his face fur, mentally willing himself to relax -- or at least act relaxed as he could hardly remember what the word “relax” even felt like anymore. There was another “when”: When was the last time he didn’t feel rushed to get to that shi---

There was a click as the door to the inn owner’s living quarters eased open. Burgerpants hissed and threw up an arm when the light clicked on, startling the rabbit lady.

“Oh my goodness,” she said, her hand over her heart, “I forgot you were there!”

The cat growled in his throat. _Most people forget I even exist unless they want a burger_ , he wanted to say. He held his tongue though, choosing instead to rasp out a low greeting. He heard footsteps pad across the room, passing him.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked. He nodded, still blinking away the bright spots in his vision. She warned him to squint, and he barely managed to do so before she pulled open the drapes. The rabbit lady made a happy sound, prompting Burgerpants to look outside.

At some point during the night, the snow had stopped. The snow, thankfully, hadn’t gotten so high that it blocked the windows entirely, but it was certainly high enough that Burgerpants doubted the door could be opened. 

Judging from the expectant look the inn owner was giving him, Burgerpants had a feeling exactly who was going to get stuck with shoveling duty.

But right now, it was time for breakfast.

 

 

Cooking for the inn guests was a lot easier than Burgerpants was used to. For one thing, the other guests (and residents -- the owner had several small siblings apart from her own bunny to care for) were mostly groggy and hardly concerned with how long it took for the coffee to boil or the berry pancakes to cook. None of them were in a place to complain anyway, considering their only other options -- going home to cook or heading to the local eatery, Grillby’s -- were out of the question until the snow was cleared. 

Besides, once they found out a cook from the city was there, nobody was willing to turn down an offer to taste test something, 

Even the bunnies, who were all finicky eaters, did not pose much of a challenge to serve. The rabbit lady took care of feeding the bunnies herself so he did not have to worry about wiping messy little faces or tucking in bibs that kept coming loose.

In fact, the closest thing Burgerpants even had to trouble was having to work around the kids.

The bunny from the night before seemed to have fallen in puppy love with him (or his cooking, at any rate) and followed his every move. Literally, the bouncing ball of fluff even copied his walk, down to the swish of his tail. Normally, this alone would have been amusing, but it was made all the more comical by Burgerpants having to balance plates and beverages while two giggling twin bunnies clung to his ankles. 

At least the awkwardly weighted duck-walk DID give him a nice leg workout.

Once most of the patrons and bunnies had been tended to, the inn owner turned to him.

“Say,” she asked, “why did you come to Snowdin, anyway? Not the best time of year for tourism, after all.”

Burgerpants thought about giving her the same excuse he did Sans but thought better of it. She had that whole “I-am-a-mother-and-I-can-see-right-through-you” vibe going on that reminded him of his own dam, and he wasn’t about to tackle something like that so early in the morning. Of course, he wasn’t about to give her insight into his existential crisis, either, because wowie, wouldn’t that be fun, finding out the person who’s crashing on your couch is completely bonkers?

“I came to visit a friend,” he finally said.

“Oh?” her ears perked up, interested. “Maybe I can help. What’s their name?”

“It’s--”

Burgerpants froze.

_I didn’t even get the guy’s name_ , he groaned internally. Oh, how stupid could he get? If things were not awkward before, they certainly were NOW.

Thankfully, he was saved by the sound of footsteps overhead.

The rabbit lady took on a sly smile. “Sounds like he’s up~!” 

The moment the words left her mouth, the bunnies around the table exchanged glances. 

As the footsteps started bounding down the stairs, four chairs shoved away from the table. Burgerpants felt the weight on his legs drop off as both twin bunnies joined the others in making a wild break for the stairway.

Burgerpants caught sight of a flash of blue before seven bunnies squealing “BROTHER” and "UNCLE" tackled a hapless monster on the bottom step. A hearty laugh arose from beneath the bunny pile and was soon joined by the chuckles and good-natured head shaking of the other inn guests. 

“Good morning to you guys, too!” 

Burgerpants’ ears pricked. He knew that voice!

Sure enough, as the inn owner called her lively brood back to their breakfast, Burgerpants saw the very monster he had been looking for laying on the floor, “pinned” by a rather plump little bunny sitting on his chest.

The Nice Cream vendor stopped laughing when he saw Burgerpants staring at him.

“Oh, it’s you!” he said. Carefully, he scooped the bunny up and made his way over to where the others were.

The rabbit lady blinked in surprise, looking between Burgerpants and the Nice Cream vendor. “You know him, Bluebell?”

Burgerpants raised an eyebrow. _Bluebell?_ That was this guy’s name?

“Sorta,” Bluebell said, setting the bunny down in a chair between its siblings, “we met at the dump the other day.”

The rabbit woman seemed to know exactly what he meant. She beamed. “So this guy was the one that had you in such a laughing fit!”

Burgerpants couldn’t stop the smug grin that crossed his face. He had apparently done a far better performance than he thought, especially if it was worthy of being discussed favorably with others. At this rate he might actually have…fans…

He forced himself back to reality when he realized Bluebell had said something to him. “Huh? Sorry, what did you say?”

Bluebell smiled. “I said, I’m glad you came to visit, but you didn’t have to run all the way out here in the middle of a blizzard.”

_Yes, I did,_ Burgerpants forced himself not to say. God, he was started to sound like an addict!

Unfortunately, the inn owner seemed to read his thoughts, because her curiosity morphed from shock into a wry, knowing smile. She rested her chin over crossed hands and slowly cocked her head toward him, eyebrows raised mischievously. “Oh~?” she crooned. “Do tell.”

Burgerpants swallowed hard. Could she read him that easily? Heck, he didn’t even understand half of what he was thinking! I mean, how could he? Most of his plans were spontaneous at best and half-assed at worst!

He could feel beads of cold sweat trickling down his face. 

“What is there to tell? He invited me, and I’m off work for a week until they get through fixing up my boss’ mess. I just figured I’d take Bluebell here up on his offer while I had some time to kill.”

The rabbit lady’s devilish smirk only seemed to grow wider, almost out of spite of knowing she knew more than she let on and wanted him to know it in the most subtle way possible.

He mentally filed that one away for future use.

_Eat your heart out, MTT, because Burgerpants is on his way up!_

Bluebell, on the other hand, seemed a strange combination of amused and concerned. “What did your boss do this time?”

“Oh, he set the dining area on fire. The way he went on about it, you’d think he barely escaped with all his cogs and gizmos intact. Though, to be fair, I think some of his wires were already fried before--”

Two little paws slammed on the table, bringing everybody’s attention to the little bunny girl who had hopped up in her seat. 

“I saw that on the news!” she shrieked excitedly. “You work for Mettaton!”

Everyone’s attention suddenly shifted to Burgerpants.

Silence fell across the room.

Burgerpants swallowed hard. He glanced up at Bluebell, who seemed to be eagerly awaiting his version of the story just as much as everyone else. 

_Well, I can’t disappoint the adoring public, now, can I?_

Taking a deep breath, his smug grin back on his face, Burgerpants struck a pose and began to tell his story…


	3. Bedtime for Burgerpants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, we finally saw the Nice Cream guy again, whom I have decided to call “Bluebell” in this fic. Why? Well, two reasons: One, Blue Bell is an ice cream brand -- the Nice Cream vendor is blue and sells frozen treats; two, there’s a rabbit in the book “Watership Down” named Bluebell who is a very witty chatterbox who likes to joke around. With that bit of inspiration, I can see this NCV and Sans being halfway decent neighbors. 
> 
> (My headcanon for this fic is that Bluebell and his siblings were named mostly after brands or rabbit-related items they found at the dump.)
> 
> This chapter is just a cute fluff scene between BP and the NCV.

Burgerpants collapsed, spread-eagled and fully pleased with himself, onto the couch that evening.

Oh, if only he had known how wonderful it was in Snowdin! He mentally kicked himself for not coming here sooner. After a full day of being the adored center of attention, he felt as though he might melt into a warm puddle of goo.

These back-cavern hicks just could not get enough of his performances! His stories had people rolling out of their chairs laughing, looking on with sad faces and crooning “Awws”, and squealing with delighted glee.

Surprisingly, he hadn’t NEARLY roasted his boss the way he initially wanted.

Even though he usually spent a good portion of his burger-flipping duties imagining hurling Mettaton into the fryer and cooking up some nice greasy robot fries, for once, he honestly could bring it in himself to do more than a few jokes (even if they were laced with a bit of venom, no one needed to know). Burgerpants knew he could have easily ruined his boss’s unfailingly good image with these people, but seeing the bright eyes of MTT’s fan bunnies, he just couldn’t do it. Even if they were only listening to him because they wanted to hear about Mettaton, they were still enthralled by the guy talking about him.

In a strange way, he almost felt _grateful_ to that egotistical electronic box. After all, without his ridiculous self-centeredness, Burgerpants wouldn’t be in Snowdin right now.

He wouldn’t have found a friend in Bluebell.

Of course, Burgerpants could have dealt without the literal clingers-on.

“Alright, you two,” he heard the inn owner say as the twins were pried from his ankles, “time for bed.”

The bunnies protested weakly, having worn themselves out running their new favorite idol and personal chauffeur to the brink of collapse. He heard their prompted “good nights” and gave a weary smile and wave as they three rabbits disappeared into their living quarters.

Bluebell remained.

“I do believe you’re going to break a few hearts when you head back to the city,” the rabbit told him.

With a melodramatic flourish, Burgerpants responded, “’Tis the life of a teenage heartthrob!”

“Oh, I’ll bet,” Bluebell said, chuckling. The two of them looked at one another and shared a smile. “Today was fun.”

“Yeah,” Burgerpants admitted, hardly believing the turn of events himself, “it was, wasn’t it?” 

The couch dipped at Burgerpants’ knees (his legs were still dangling off the couch from where the twins had a hold of his ankles) as the rabbit sat down. 

“I always thought life outside the city was so boring,” Burgerpants admitted, “but this place seems pretty wild.”

Bluebell nodded. “Yeah, it has its spurts. The bunnies are a handful enough on their own, but now and then you’ll have the Skeleton Brothers concoct some crazy puzzle or something. And don’t get me started on Undyne’s visits…”

“Why not?” Burgerpants grinned, sitting up.

“Hey, gotta keep something to talk about for next time, yeah?”

_Next time…?_

This guy…wanted Burgerpants to come back? 

The thought sent a strange flare of warmth through him, like the shot of pain and adrenaline he got whenever he was splattered by grease. Only this was a lot bigger and had not left sore spots and singed fur.

Bluebell made a happy sound in his throat and sprang back to his feet. “Well, reckon I’ll hit the hay, friend.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Burgerpants said. “Have a nice night.”

It was a few moments after he started looking for the blanket he had borrowed that he realized Bluebell was still there. He stopped searching and looked back at the rabbit. “You need something?”

Bluebell clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Nuh-uh,” he said, “we can’t have you sleeping on the couch again. You’ll get a crick in your neck that way.”

Burgerpants shot him a confused look. “Well, where else am I supposed to sleep?” 

The rabbit’s eyes lit up.

“Why, with me, of course!” He proffered a hand to help Burgerpants up.

The cat monster raised an eyebrow. “Do what now?”

“My sister has beds big enough for a whole family to sleep in,” Bluebell said cheerfully. “What with rabbit and dog monster families usually being so big, she has to make sure there’s room enough for as many people as she can. Usually, I just bunk with her and the tyke, but with our parents visiting friends in Waterfall, our siblings took the bed I usually stay in. So I wound up bunking it like a regular guest.”

Burgerpants still didn’t comprehend what he was getting at, and told Bluebell so.

The Nice Cream vendor’s ears drooped backward, his expression apologetic. 

“What I’m trying to say is I’ve got a room all to myself, and I’d have been more than happy to share last night if I knew you had to sleep on that lumpy old couch. That thing is about as comfortable as sleeping on a rock.”

Burgerpants couldn’t argue with that.

He tried to think up a reason for why this would be a bad idea, but as good as the day was, his mind was as tired as his body. He and his older sisters used to share a bed when they were little and, even now, if either or both of them came to visit Burgerpants they usually wound up in the same kitten pile wherever one decided to take a nap. At any rate, Bluebell didn’t seem like the sort of monster that would shank him in his sleep, so why not?

Exhaustion and Bluebell’s welcoming smile having won out, Burgerpants accepted the rabbit’s hand and trotted duly along after him.


	4. A Rude Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Oh, don't act like you didn't want a bedroom scene.
> 
> No kinkshamimg, though, 'cuz I'd be as nosy as the rest of you! XD

Burgerpants woke to pain blossoming in his face.

He cried out and attempted to claw at his assailant, only to realize that he could hardly move his arms. Unable to see from the darkness of the room, he thrashed about, yowling and swearing, only to realize that he seemed to be pinned in a cloth cocoon. 

His struggles must have stunned his attacker, because almost the instant he became vocal he heard a harried scuffling drawing away from him and then the sound of feet hitting the floor. Immediately, the tension in the cloth went slack, and the lack of anything holding him back sent him sailing through the air and slamming, hard, onto the ground--

 

 

\---Right onto his already smarting nose.

Burgerpants couldn’t tell if the wetness he felt a moment later was blood or tears.

Vaguely, he heard scrabbling around and what sounded like a concerned voice, but it wasn’t until the darkness burst into a blinding light that Burgerpants remembered that, oh, yeah, someone else was in the room with him. 

It was a little hard to hold onto key pieces of information like that when you’re in pain and getting to know the floor on a very intimate basis.

“Golly, are you alright, friend?”

Blinking through the tears and dancing white spots in his vision, Burgerpants raised his head and squinted up at the figure looming over him. Slowly, the distorted image of blue fur and long ears made sense.

_Bluebell_ , he realized. 

Memories of the previous day flooded him as he felt the rabbit crouch down and begin unwinding his trapped arms from the blanket. He hissed as he brought a paw up and gingerly touched his nose. Bluebell winced in sympathy. Burgerpants noticed that, when he looked at his paw, there was a dark patch of blood on his fur.

_That’s just great!_

“What hit me?” Burgerpants thought aloud.

“Oh, dear…” Burgerpants looked up at the rabbit and noticed he was chewing his lower lip, his ears laying back and drooping over his shoulders like hair. After a moment, Bluebell guiltily admitted, “This is my fault. I am so sorry.”

“What are you talking about?” 

The fur on Bluebell’s cheeks seemed to grow a deep cobalt. Burgerpants blinked his eyes a few times, wondering if it was a trick of the muted luminance of the flashlight or his pain-wracked vision, but quickly realized that the color was slowly spreading across the rabbit’s face, reaching his ears and disappearing into the neckline of his pajama top. Was he blushing?

More like flushed with shame, Burgerpants decided, with how concerned Bluebell sounded. 

“I forgot I used to move around in bed a lot,” the rabbit told him. “I used to do it a lot as a kid but now, I usually only toss around like that if…”

Bluebell’s words trailed off strangely, like his batteries had died. The rabbit smoothed back the wavy tuft of fur sticking up on his head, the flashlight slightly trembling in his free paw and causing the light to waver.

“A-anyway,” he said, looking askance, “let’s find something for that nose of yours.”

Burgerpants let the rabbit help him stand. A glance at the blanket at his feet and the bedding revealed that, fortunately, he hadn’t bled on either. Glad he would not have to find out how steep reimbursement for stained bedding would be, Burgerpants heaved a sigh. He thought about putting the blanket back on the bed but, remembering the blood on his paws, he decided against it. Instead, he carefully backed away from it, choosing to sit on the floor beside the nightstand.

With a promise to return as soon as he could, Bluebell, as quickly and quietly as he could to keep from waking the other inn guests, left the room, stopping only for a brief moment to pull away the thick cloth covering the lamp. The luminescent cave crystals that functioned as the room’s main light source flood the room with their cool greenish-blue glow.

The cat leaned his head against the paneling, only to realize that the wall was a lot chillier than he had thought. Without the blanket, the cold seeped into his body with the speed of a hurled spear, and he almost regretted his frugality. He pulled his knees up to his chest, his tail and one arm wrapping around his midsection as he shivered. 

Since Burgerpants had not thought to bring any extra clothes on his trip, he had to borrow something to sleep in. Unfortunately, Bluebell and his relatives were all tall and slim, so the cat had to make due with the room’s complimentary bathrobe. It wasn’t the worst choice in sleeping clothes considering it was made of fleece, though the gaudy neon green it was dyed was something he could see his boss picking out if the robot ever decided to divorce the color pink. 

The bathrobe WAS, however, was far too long for Burgerpants, so he had to hitch much of the fabric up and tie it before he could see his feet. Even then, the awkward fitting and struggle against his accidental assailant had made him a mess. One sleeve dangled halfway down his shoulder, his chest was nearly bare to the frigid room, and the neat sash-like tucking he had made with the excess fabric and the robe’s strings had come undone and left his MTT-brand boxers (which he would deny until his dying day that he owned) on open display. He was fortunate he had not tripped walking in it.

And he had bled on it. Great.

_Looks like I’m not getting out of damage charges after all_ , he thought, bemoaning his wretched luck.

Standing and readjusting the robe to cover himself again, Burgerpants stood and looked around the room, searching for his clothes. He found his them still folded the night before (a habit because he prided himself on looking his best when he could, even if it was just in his burger-flipping duds) on the nightstand, his jacket tossed causally on top.

He looked around for something to wipe his bloody paws on when he heard soft footsteps making their way toward the room.

Bluebell’s arms were laden with enough stuff that it looked like the rabbit was about to do surgery rather than doctor a bleeding nose. In the pile, Burgerpants could see a plastic bag filled with something, a couple of fluffy towels, some washcloths, and one of those holiday cookie tins.

The rabbit met his eyes and smiled -- albeit a bit awkwardly, what with his ears still laying mostly flat and his face still tinged cobalt.

When he didn’t say anything after a few moments, Burgerpants asked, “What’s all that?”

“Huh? OH! Right,” Bluebell said. If his nose hadn’t still been smarting, Burgerpants might have grinned at the way the rabbit’s ears perked up and flicked around, making his expressions seem more grandiose than intended. “Sis was already up when I went downstairs. She said our aunt dropped some stuff off and some of it looked like it might fit you. Since, you know, you‘ve kinda been wearing the same clothes since you got here.”

He nodded his head down toward the bag.

“Oh,” Burgerpants said, surprised. “Um, tell her I said thanks.”

Bluebell’s ears stood up, his smile beaming. “Why don’t you tell her yourself when you come down to breakfast? But first,” he nodded toward the door, “bathroom’s free. Might wanna take advantage of that before the kids wake up.”

“Yeah, good idea. I’m sort of a mess right now,” he said, gesturing down at the bathrobe. 

Bluebell, ironically, chuckled and muttered “finally“. 

“What’s so funny?”

The rabbit flashed him a grin. 

“I’ve been trying to convince Sis for ages that there was a reason that ugly thing was in the garbage,” he admitted with a laugh. “She kept it because it was practical and she is too frugal to waste money on dye. If you hadn’t needed it, I was going to hide it under the bed until I left.”


	5. Beware Big Sisters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anybody feeling trolled by the lack of romantic sleep-huggles in the last chapter? >:3
> 
> Chapter 5’s a little short, I suppose, but have some amusing Innkeeper - Burgerpants interactions.

The inn had a _bathtub_.

It was all Burgerpants could do not to capitalize on taking a bath first thing, considering his bathroom back at MTT Resort only had a shower and he hadn’t had the luxury of a real bath since he moved out of his parents’ house. He decided against it, however, knowing that the moment he got comfortable, the other guests would probably be up (and, if the bunnies were anything like his siblings, it would be all-out chaos until they got their turns), but told himself he would take the opportunity before he left Snowdin.

The cookie tin, it turned out, had not a single cookie crumb inside of it. Instead, it housed a makeshift first aid kit. Burgerpants contemplated using one of the cotton balls, just in case, but the bleeding seemed to have stopped at some point during his shower. In a brief respite from Lady Luck’s wrath, he had won the genetic lottery with noses and mentally thanked his feline genes for making his stubby button of a nose nearly impossible to break.

Dressed in surprisingly decently fitting new clothes, Burgerpants gathered up the dirty laundry and first aid supplies before heading downstairs.

The inn owner -- Macy, he recalled -- was waiting for him. The white rabbit looked up from her ledger and smiled. 

“We~ell,” she said in a singsong voice, “look who decided to finally join us!” She looked over Burgerpants as he walked around behind the counter. “I see the clothes Aunt Flossie sent over were a good fit. I’m glad.”

Burgerpants thanked her, glancing toward the windows. From his angle, it did not look like there had been any more snow. He could still nearly see the tamped-down path that served as the main road. All of his and Bluebell’s shoveling -- along with the addition of some neighbors’ fire magic -- could still plainly be seen.

“Any word on the entrance to Waterfall?”

“Still blocked, I’m afraid,” Macy informed him. “Seems like it flash froze. The whole entrance is nothing but a giant ice cube.”

This wasn’t good. 

Burgerpants had been away from the Hotland for two days. Ticking off the numbers mentally, it meant he had five days at the most to get back to MTT Resort before Glamburger -- soon to be MTT-brand Burger Emporium because rebuilding the restaurant bigger and better meant it needed a fancier name -- reopened. His boss had sent a few text messages glorifying the repairs (though why Mettaton took time out of his busy schedule to inform _Burgerpants_ , of all employees, was beyond the cat’s comprehension. Then again, for all he knew, MTT could just be sending a mass text to whatever numbers to which he was privy). None of the texts implied his presence was needed any time soon, but Burgerpants knew Mettaton wouldn’t excuse his absence.

Macy must have noticed the concern on his face, because she countered it with a little wave and smile. “Don’t worry about it too much. I heard Undyne and the Royal Guard have finally joined in. With enough fire magic hitting that blockade from both sides, it probably won’t take more than a few hours to clear it. We shouldn‘t have another snowstorm for a while, so it should stay open.”

Burgerpants sighed in relief. He walked over to the coat hooks on the wall beside the kitchen and took down an apron. He decided he may as well make himself useful until the route was cleared.

“So what do ya’ want me to fix the kids?” he asked.

“Pancakes will do.”

With a nod, the cat headed into the kitchen with the rabbit lady soon joining him. A quick rifling through the cabinets and fridge produced the necessary ingredients. Even though he hadn’t had to help with the bunnies the previous morning, he remembered a few of their preferences Macy had talked about as he helped her out around the inn the rest of the day. He had just finished cutting one pancake into little triangles the way he had watched Macy do the day before when he realized that he was being watched.

He looked up at Macy, who was holding two mugs of coffee and wearing a pleasantly surprised smile.

“How did you know Flopsy liked his pancakes that way?” she asked. “Or that Junior like his juice with crushed ice instead of cubed?”

“Oh, uh,” Burgerpants straightened, smoothing down the fur on the back of his neck, “I saw the way you served each of them yesterday. It really wasn’t that hard to remember.”

“Are you kidding?” Macy said incredulously. “It took me ages to remember what each of my siblings likes! Even then, only our own mother can get it right all of the time.”

Burgerpants felt a twinge of pride. “Well, I’ve always been good at that. Memorizing things, I mean. Complex orders, strings of dialogue -- it just comes with the territory, I guess.”

Macy chuckled quietly, shaking her head. “You really are something else.” She passed him a cup of coffee. “Bluebell should be bringing the kids back in from playing in the snow shortly. In the meantime,” she motioned to a chair, “have a seat. Let’s chat.”

Now, Burgerpants knew he wasn’t the best conversationalist first thing in the morning, but he figured Macy wouldn’t mind. After all, she had only stated she wanted cooking and cleaning in exchange for his room and board. He really hoped she wasn’t expecting him to be a comedian 24/7. Burgerpants didn’t think he could stand talking about his boss this early in the morning.

Taking a sip of coffee (a bit too strong for his tastes, but with an inn and that many bunnies, he wasn’t surprised that was Macy’s fuel of choice), he looked over at her. “So what’s up?”

Daintily sipping her own beverage, Macy asked, “How is your nose?”

_Bluebell must have told her_ , he figured. “Better.” Macy made a thoughtful noise. 

“I hope you don’t hold it against my brother--”

“Nah,” Burgerpants said waving her off, “stuff happens. Bad luck just tends to follow me.” He took another swig of the piping hot brew, enjoying the heat bubbling down his throat. “Ah. Is he alright, by the way? I think he was more shaken up by the whole thing than I was.”

Slowly, Macy leaned back in her seat, studying the swirls of her creamer-laced coffee as a tiny smirk toyed at her lips. 

“Oh, he was torn up about _something_ , alright,” she said. Burgerpants half expected her to lecture him over the bathrobe when she added, “But not over a bloody nose.”

In hindsight, Burgerpants should have realized something was up from the tone in her voice. In fact, years later, he would still claim one of his greatest character inspirations was Macy.

Seriously, that wicked little smirk of hers had “VILLAIN” written all over in in bright neon capital letters and glittered more than a Glamburger.

“So how long have you and my brother been seeing one another?”

 

 

_Lesson of the day: Hot coffee hurts when it squirts through your nose._


	6. Macy Is a Match for Even Mettaton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Big Sister!Macy just loves her brother and wants him to be happy, Burgerpants! Why can’t you just give into her dream? 
> 
>  
> 
> …Actually, that’s a lesson I’ve learned from real life: 
> 
> If a sister ships you and her sibling, watch out. It leads to some very awkward conversations.   
> Especially if those conversations are at work and leave you being wary of being in the same room together with all three of you in the same place with no backup around because, damn, the kid is evil…  
> (whole thing has been hilarious, though, and I‘m drawing a little inspiration from her for Macy)
> 
> Anybody else ever had that “problem“? 
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I’d like to thank everyone for their kudos and encouraging comments on this series. The lovely **Miyuki_Namada49** was responsible for the secondary name to this pairing (Sweet ‘N Salty) becoming a tag, **BlueberrySwirls** got me into this pairing, and **shapeshiftinterest** has some wonderful prompts on their tumblr that I am highly considering using. In fact, quite a few of my commenters are awesome writers and their works hold just as much (if not more) heartwarming content than this one, so you should definitely go check them out.
> 
> Also **isissa** has made another crack pairing I love now: Mettaton and Neo (who is a non-monster soul-housing robot). You should really go check out their series because its freaking adorable.
> 
> There are others I’d like to name but those are the most prominent figures I can remember before my coffee kicks in. XD

Using the apron to plug the mess running down his face, Burgerpants blinked blearily through tears and looked around for a table linen. Macy was halfway out of her seat, asking him if he was alright, but the most he could do was wave her off for a few seconds until the pain subsided. 

“Oh my,” Macy said, “I had only meant to ask you a few questions. I wasn’t trying to kill you.”

Burgerpants could swear he heard a quiet “yet” following that but it was a bit hard to hear over his own coughing and agonized groan. Once he realized that he wasn’t bleeding, he pressed Macy’s offered table linen to his nose and shot her a bewildered look. That question had come from so far out of left field that it took him a couple of seconds to be able to voice his reply with anything else more than flabbergasted silence.

“Wh-what on earth are you talking about?” he sputtered frenetically. “”I’m not…He’s not…We…NO! That‘s not what I meant! There is no ‘we‘!” 

Burgerpants shook his head, mentally grabbing at the words flying through his shock-addled mind and attempting cram them into some sort of coherent sentence. Macy “hmmed” thoughtfully.

“Really?” she asked. “Could have fooled me.”

All Burgerpants could do was stare at the rabbit.

“After all,” Macy continued, “from the way you told it, you just sort of hopped out of bed and ran straight here to see him, ignoring the fact that there was a blizzard coming. What with your boss being MTT and all, you surely should have heard his weather forecast that morning…” 

She trailed off, giving him a look that indicated she highly questioned his credibility.

Gesturing a huge “X” several times with his arms, Burgerpants told her, “You’ve got it all wrong, lady. Bluebell and I aren’t dating. We just met at the dump a few days ago and I got bored and came to see him.”

It wasn’t a total lie, but damned if he was going to tell this woman his true reason for walking to Snowdin on impulse. ‘I just wanted to find your brother because I can get him to make awesome expressions’ sounded very creepy and very unbelievable.

…Actually, if he thought about it, that sounded horribly perverted, too. 

Burgerpants buried his head in his paws, trying not to think of the implications of that statement. He could feel his facial fur standing on end as the heat crept to his cheeks. 

“Are you su~ure you were just bored?” Macy crooned, sounding so wickedly devilish that it only made him mentally freak out even more. “You don’t like my brother even in the slightest degree?”

Burgerpants refused to voice a reply. Having his palms and forehead spending some quality time together was far more important than displaying his utter embarrassment to the sister of a guy he had just met, thank you very much.

He heard the creak of the chair as Macy leaned back in hers.

“That really is too bad,” she said, “because he is certainly into you.”

Now THAT was news. 

Burgerpants’ paws dropped to the table so fast that the resounding _thud!_ they made could have woken the neighbors. “What?”

Finally having successfully gotten his attention, Macy’s sickly sweet smirk softened. “I suppose you wouldn’t know, if you really did just meet the other day,” she told him, “but he has been showing off around you. Shoveling the snow so fast, being even more energetic with our siblings’ games, hanging around the inn to listen to you…Why, he has hardly taken his eyes off you since the moment he came downstairs yesterday! And--”

Macy fell silent and for several long moments, did not say another word. 

 

 

It was a trap. 

Burgerpants KNEW it was a trap and that she was _goading_ him to ask. 

That sneaky little devilish rabbit dam was just baiting him to ask. He just stared expectantly at her, waiting, but she merely sipped her coffee and pretended that he was not even in the room. Her façade of innocence was driving him up the wall, because he knew she knew something and, darn it, this might be pertinent information!

…Of course, if he _did_ ask, Macy would immediately take it as a sign that Burgerpants was interested in her brother. 

Not the sort of interest a budding alcoholic has toward booze, but _romantic_.

Burgerpants thought it over for several moments. Maybe she was just messing with him. 

Did anything she said actually happen yesterday? Were there actual signs that Bluebell found his company enjoyable on more than a simple newfound local celebrity status? Bluebell had certainly had a lot of energy working with Burgerpants the day before -- but, then again, it was hard not to when you had a bunch of bunnies looking up to you with hero worship in their eyes. And why wouldn’t Bluebell look at him as he was telling his story? He was an actor! Actors demanded attention with their every word and gesture!

\--Wait. Why was this bothering him?

_Oh, she’s good_ , he admitted. Mettaton would have some real competition if Macy ever decided to give up the inn-keeping business for showbiz.

Finally, the suspense got the better of him:

“And what?” he asked.

Damn that wicked smirk of hers. Her eyes flashed with a devilish glee as she stared through him.

“Well, you two _did_ share a bed.”

 

 

_Second lesson of the day: Curiosity really did kill the cat (or his dignity, anyway)._

Burgerpants swore his face was as red as one of his boss’ many neon signs. His tail and ears stood on end, as did nearly every hair on his person. 

“I…he didn’t…I didn’t…we…uh…I mean…”

…Maybe he should just start walking. At this rate, the heat of his embarrassment would just melt the ice blockade at Waterfall and he could be home in a few hours.

Macy leaned back in her chair, a thoroughly satisfied smirk on her lips, and took a long swig of her coffee as Burgerpants heard the front door swing open. As the sounds of children’s voices and pattering feet made their way toward the kitchen, Burgerpants desperately willed away the flushing of his face and stood, busying himself with the final preparations for the bunnies’ breakfast.

And no, he did NOT light up like a Christmas tree when Macy greeted her brother.

(It was a little hard to go any redder than he already was, anyway.)

He quickly raked his paw over his face, smoothing down the fur, before turning back to the table. Bluebell was helping the youngest bunny into his highchair.

“Hey, how’s the nose?” the Nice Cream vendor asked.

“Oh, uh,” Burgerpants stammered out, “it’s fine.”

_As fine as it can be after being smashed and having hot coffee snorted through it_ , he thought miserably. He shot Macy a subtle glare when he turned around to give the twins their sippy cups, but the inn owner ignored him. After all of the bunnies were settled in and served, Burgerpants grabbed himself a plate and looked around for a place to sit.

When had Macy moved…?

Oh.

Oh, _no_.

The rabbit lady turned around from her task of feeding her littlest sibling mashed carrots and looked up at Burgerpants. 

“Aren’t you going to join us?” she asked sweetly, pointing over to her original seat. “You can sit next to Bluebell.” 

She nodded toward her brother. Bluebell’s ears shot up at his name. When he saw Burgerpants still standing, he waved him over, beaming, and patted the chair next to him. Not wanting to disappoint his biggest fan, Burgerpants bit back an annoyed sigh and headed around the table.

He pretended he didn’t hear the quiet chuckle as he passed Macy.


	7. Family Outing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have established that Macy is leader of the Nicepants fan club. 
> 
> Now, we have a little more family fluff-related cuteness with the bunnies. I can’t help myself -- the plot bunnies stole their way into the fic and have taken over through sheer force of adorableness! Suffocating me with their tooth-rotting cuteness…I cannot breathe…! 
> 
> \--Author has fallen down--
> 
>  
> 
> Also, two things:
> 
> I will be upping the rating of this to “T” because there are going to be mentions of drug use and probably a couple of chapters with Burgerpants doing some heavy angsting since he’s got more issues than “National Geographic”. Nothing horribly graphic but, considering I will be adding a few trigger tags, I figure it might be for the best. Don’t worry -- the fluff won’t go away entirely, but I do want to play on the complexities of a character (even if I have to embellish them a bit). Also, Sans is back in the next chapter!
> 
>  
> 
> Secondly…Burger pants “actual” name.
> 
> I chose Bluebell for the Nice Cream vendor, but I’d like you all to have a say in what I eventually call BP (I already have the next few chapters written out, so we’ll say…three or four more posts before the official decision?).
> 
> I’d like to do something feline-related since I’m (SPOILERS!!!) making his sisters Tabby and Purrline, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Right now I’m mostly leaning toward Roary. 
> 
> Feel free to add to the list. Comment your choice below!

Despite Macy making things super awkward at the start of breakfast, the rest of the meal was relatively uneventful. 

Burgerpants sat back and listened to Bluebell tell Macy about the bunnies making snowmonsters, joining in a little toward the end when the two other adults asked him if he had ever done something like that when he was a kitten. That led to his and Bluebell’s swapping childhood stories (which Burgerpants could not help but lavishly reenact with all of his developing acting prowess). 

It was not long before Burgerpants found the awkward atmosphere dissipating as he fell into sync with Bluebell, taking it as a personal challenge to find out which combinations of words and gestures could evoke which expressions on the rabbit monster’s face. His current favorite was making the rabbit laugh so hard he was reduced to nearly squeaking wheezes, leaving his arms wrapped around himself as if to keep in the giggles and his ears losing their soldier-stiff altitude and gently drooping in a way that matched the wavy curlicue of fur between them.

It was so easy to get caught up in playing off the Nice Cream vendor’s expressions that it was easy to forget they were not alone in the room. After all, Bluebell’s laugh tended to drown out even the chattering bunnies around them.

So when Macy’s high-pitched giggle joined them, Burgerpants jumped a little in his seat.

_Right_ , he thought trying not to grimace, _I forgot that demon rabbit was here._

“Did your sisters really braid your fur that badly?” she asked.

Burgerpants could not stop the grim if he wanted to. “Yeah, they did. I had a whole roll of braids with Tabby’s dolls’ hair ribbons from the top of my head to the nape of my neck,” he said, running a stubby finger to show the phantom trail. “I wound up rocking the strangest Mohawk ever that day. I tried to get Ma to help me undo them but she thought it was ‘so cute’--” 

He put his paws on his cheeks and tried to portray his mother’s look.

“--that she had the family photo taken with me in all my braided glory! Can you imagine that?”

Bluebell certainly could and produced a loud bellow which fizzled away like a deflating balloon, leaving him slumped over with his forehead pressed to the table. Burgerpants might have thought he was dead if not for the silent shaking of Bluebell’s shoulders.

The cat poked him and playfully asked, “You alright there, buddy?”

Bluebell answered with a weak nod of his head. A moment later, he noticed a small furry hand tugging on his shirt sleeve. Burgerpants looked around and saw that one of the bunnies was staring up at his uncle with excitement.

“Uncle Bluebell,” he asked, “can we go ice-skating now?”

The Nice Cream vendor sat up before reaching over and ruffling the fur atop the bunny’s head. “I did promise ice-skating after breakfast, didn’t I?” he said, looking around to see tiny long ears all tuned to his words. With a nod of permission from Macy, he stood, stooping and picking up the bunny closest to him. “Well, we’d all better go get our skates then, yeah?”

An odd lingering heaviness rolled into Burgerpants’ soul at the knowledge that he was about to be deprived of his fan-inspired motivation. It did not have long to linger as his two favorite clingers-on ran over to him and latched onto an arm each.

“You’re coming with us, right?” said one twin.

“Yeah, yeah!” the other chirped gleefully, tugging at his arm. “You come, too!”

“Nah, you guys go on without me.”

If there was one thing sadder than a downcast audience, it was the disappointed cries of an audience comprised entirely of heartbroken monster children. 

The twins wrapped their little arms around his own and started pleading. When that didn’t work, the other bunnies joined in asking him to come along. Burgerpants was stricken speechless by the all of the plaintive begging for his attention that his brain practically shut down for several seconds before he realized that Bluebell was talking to him.

“Huh?”

_Oh, yeah,_ real _eloquent there, buddy_ , Burgerpants mentally chided himself. 

“C’mon,” Bluebell said, “come with us! I’m sure Cotton’s old skates can fit you. Whad’dya say?”

Now, if this had been Mettaton coming in to work and telling him to go relax (and it would be a cold day in hell before that happened, Burgerpants was sure), the cat would have been out the door before the robot had a chance to finish speaking. But, strangely, the cheery tilt of Bluebell’s ears and bright eyes made him hesitate. 

_Great_ , Burgerpants bit back a sigh, _now everything’s awkward. Thanks a lot, Macy._

Man, he could use a smoke right about now.

The cat monster turned to the innkeeper and was surprised to see her smiling. “You should go,” she told him. Burgerpants opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off. “You’ve more than worked out your room and board for the past couple of days. You deserve a break.”

Heh, now there was something. Him? Getting a break?

Oh, yes, his boss really needed to take some lessons from this woman.

Of course, the odd glint in her eyes told Burgerpants that Macy’s suggestion was less friendly advice and more of an order.

…On second thought, maybe he should keep Mettaton and Macy as far away from each other as possible. 

Finally, Burgerpants looked down at the twins’ hopeful stares and grinned. 

“Heh, sounds like fun.”


	8. Skeleton in Burgerpants' Closet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, folks -- the last chapter was fluffy preparation for the tough gristly meat of the story. Last chance to turn back before character introspection and the trigger warnings come into play. Now the real drama unfolds (oh Burgerpants, methinks your want of a fan and desire for a friend are playing double-dutch right now!)
> 
> Also, Sans is back!;3
> 
>  
> 
> Note to **shapeshiftinterest** :  
> I'm not as familiar with communicating on tumble as I should be. The comics were adorable but when I read your other posts, they reminded me of a situation I have seen many times. I have some advice for you so...exactly how do I talk to you on there? Or would you like to check back in comment replies on here instead? Shoot me a note.

_I was wrong. This isn’t fun. This is the exact OPPOSITE of fun!_

Burgerpants did not know which hurt worse: his pride or his backside. 

Sure, he tried to sit things out on the sidelines, but no one would hear of that. Even when he reluctantly admitted that he hadn’t the foggiest idea of how to ice skate, it had not kept the bunnies from cajoling him into putting on the skates and then dragging him out onto the ice in attempt to teach him. Unfortunately, Burgerpants wound up spending more time trying to break the ice with his rump than standing. 

The one time he managed to stay upright for more than five seconds, a shove from behind sent him careening straight into a snow bank.

Bluebell took the reins after that.

The Nice Cream vendor took his paws and led him cautiously back out onto the ice. Burgerpants’ felt utterly ridiculous because his balance was shaky at best and he more than once wound up depending solely on the rabbit’s firm grip to keep him from face-planting the frozen pond. The cat looked on in envy as the bunnies made swirling loops around the two of them. Just how could such chubby little balls of fluff be so graceful on the ice?

After nearly falling for the umpteenth time and awkwardly trying to pull himself out of an involuntary near split, Burgerpants realized that whomever thought of the idea of strapping razor-sharp blades to their feet to prance about in the cold on a bone-shattering icy surface had more faulty wiring than his own boss.

Once Bluebell realized how irritated Burgerpants was getting, he kindly suggested, “Maybe we should take a little break, hmm?”

The cat was only too happy to flop down one the bench at the edge of the pond. Answering Bluebell’s concerned look with a wave, the rabbit headed back out onto the ice with his nephew and younger siblings. 

Burgerpants took the sweet reprieve as a chance for a smoke. After finding one match that wasn’t broken (Bluebell made him keep his smoking supplies on him because the bunnies were far too curious for their own good and claimed that Macy wound throw both of them out in the snow if she caught any of the children lighting up), Burgerpants pulled a slightly smashed blunt from his pocket and tipped the tiny burning stick to it. 

Through the mellow deluge of endorphins and the sweet haze of smoke, he watched as the tall and lanky rabbit whirled about effortlessly on the ice, leaping and twirling -- much to the bunnies’ delight -- like a blue whirlwind.

Absentmindedly, he wondered, “How do his ears not hit him in the face?”

“beats me.”

Burgerpants jumped clear of the bench only to realize, too late, that he was still wearing skates. Pulling himself out of the snow bank where he had landed, he looked up to see the skeleton he had met a few days prior was sitting on the bench where he had been sitting only moments prior.

“What the---? How did…what…”

Sans turned to look at him. “what’s the matter? **cat** got your tongue?”

The glare from Burgerpants did nothing to deter Sans’ chuckling. “Don’t you have a sentry station to guard?”

“i’m taking a break,” Sans said, linking his bony arms behind his head and leaning back, enjoying the show on the ice. “it’s nice to relax every once in a while. overworking only tires you out.”

Burgerpants highly doubted sitting at a booth and watching the snow melt was very taxing. He didn’t say that, though, and instead pulled his tail around him to brush off the snow that clung to it.

“how’re you liking Snowdin, pal?”

“’S alright, I guess,” Burgerpants said curtly, his pride still smarting too much to want to converse with the guy who gave him a jumpscare. Sans hummed noncommittally. 

Growling upon finding that his smoke had been extinguished, Burgerpants stubbed it out into the snow. Immediately, the butt flew up in a ball of blue magic and darted straight into a nearby garbage can. Burgerpants shot a surprised look over to Sans in time to see him lazily drop his arm back down to the bench.

“littering isn’t very nice, you know,” he turned his ever-present toothy grin on Burgerpants. The cat caught the dying flash of blue winking out in one eye socket before Sans’ pinprick pupils returned to normal. The skeleton must have noticed the shiver run through the cat because he chuckled and patted the seat next to him. “c’mon up out of the snow. it’s gotta be cold down there. not that i’d know, being a skeleton and all.”

Even though the skeleton sounded friendly enough, Burgerpants could feel the underlying commanding tone that lay beneath the laidback voice. Groaning, he crawled over to the bench and pulled himself back onto the seat.

The two of them sat there for several long moments staring out over the pond. 

Finally, Sans broke the silence.

“now, I know it’s none of my business,” the skeleton said, “but you don’t seem to be having a very relaxing visit.” 

Burgerpants didn’t quite know how to respond, choosing to make a soft hum of acknowledgement before shifting forward to rest his elbows on his knees. A few more moments passed with the only sound being the laughing of bunnies as Bluebell swung one of his siblings onto his back and began streaking across the ice with blinding speed. The monster child shrieked with pure glee. When he spun to a graceful halt, Bluebell looked over at Burgerpants and waved. The cat smiled and meekly waved back. 

“your buddy is sure having a blast out there,” Sans noted.

Burgerpants said nothing.

“keeps looking over here, though.”

Burgerpants could feel a cold sweat prickling at the back of his neck. He shifted uncomfortably. Just what was this skeleton going on about…?

“He doesn’t like having anyone feel left out,” Burgerpants told Sans. 

After watching Bluebell go by with one bunny clinging to his back and a twin clinging to each hand, Sans said, “yeah, seems like it.” 

Just then, Bluebell made a swing around the corner and glanced back over to the bench where Burgerpants was sitting. Burgerpants could feel more eyes on him than just the rabbit’s, and it made his skin crawl. Like knowing his boss had found some other flaw in his work to poke fun at, he could feel the remark brewing in the monster beside him…

“--but that’s not why he keeps looking over here.”

Gritting his teeth, Burgerpants huffed and asked, “Oh? And what’s your theory?”

His ears twitched at the soft sound of bones and fabric shuffling as Sans turned to face him. Burgerpants looked over at the perpetually grinning skeleton and saw one brow bone quirked down, the other raised comically high in disbelief.

“kid, I know you’re from hotland, but surely your brain didn’t freeze when you got here.”

Burgerpants visibly flinched.

If even Sans could see it, then the chances of Burgerpants being able to write off Bluebell’s attentive behavior as that of a mere star-struck fan drained away faster than his motivation did when he stepped into work. Macy really hadn’t been pulling his leg, after all.

Then again, going ice-skating DID feel less like a family outing with a celebrity tagging along and more of a…date.

Burgerpants felt his facial fur fluff up as his face reddened. He turned away from Sans, scrubbing his face in an attempt to get his fur to lay flat. His embarrassment would have none of that, however, and he finally gave up and just buried his head in his paws.

A few days ago, Burgerpants was trapped in the life of a unremarkable, easily forgettable role of fast food worker. And now, suddenly, he not only had a fan, but one hopelessly enamored with him!

Instantly, the possibilities flooded him:

How easy it would be to just cling to Bluebell’s budding romantic feelings just so he could siphon off the performance high! 

Oh, to have his own personal audience of one, to have those long ears focused solely on his every word, to have those starry eyes eating up his every move and gesture! 

Just how grand would it be, for once, to stand beside his boss and have someone utterly ignore the robot in favor of just basking in Burgerpants’ presence?

The thoughts were overwhelmingly heady, forming a fantasy far more intoxicating than any alcoholic beverage could ever be to him. And the opportunity was right in front of him, just waiting to be picked!

 

 

_No. No, this…this is all wrong._

The cat’s heart plummeted to his stomach.

Maybe it was a testimony to just how lonely he was. After all, his own sisters could barely stand him anymore. And friends? Pfft, what friends? He was a freaking workaholic with no social life and a smoldering ember of a dream that snuffed out a bit more with every sequin he pasted onto a Glamburger.

Maybe it was how, after longing for the spotlight so long, when he finally had a fan, he didn’t know quite how to handle it.

Maybe it was because, after seeing the dark side of the Underground’s favorite celebrity on a regular basis, he could not see how Mettaton could flirt and cajole his own fans but still be as hollow and aloof as the cold tin box he was. It had certainly been quite the wake-up call when, upon getting to work for his idol, he realized that the gushing compliments he threw his audience and the warm and welcoming presence was only metal exoskeleton deep.

(Burgerpants really hoped that whoever MTT’s first fan had been had been had fared better than what he imagined.)

If Burgerpants was willing to merely use Bluebell, then would his attitude change the moment he became more popular? After all, he had proven that, given the situation, he could don the actor’s persona in a heartbeat. 

…What about when Bluebell actually showed some emotion besides that ever-cheery smile? 

Apart from the unfortunate sleep-slapping, Bluebell had been incredibly attentive, never bothering Burgerpants with his own stories of misfortune. Burgerpants could hardly stand customers who seemed to think that just because they bought something meant they could use him as their own personal verbal springboard. He was a fast food worker, not a therapist. Even the slightest amount of emotional conflict with his own _sisters_ was enough to overload him.

Wouldn’t Burgerpants just shove Bluebell aside the moment anything serious came into play that did not involve supporting himself? 

With everything on his plate right now, could Burgerpants even handle that?

In one shining moment of clarity, Burgerpants could see that he might very well turn into Mettaton.

 

 

He wondered how his younger self would have reacted to that thought making him sick.


	9. Confusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last time, we left off with Burgerpants going into a extreme mental downward spiral because he can’t figure out whether he wants a fan or a friend -- and whether he deserves either. 
> 
> It leads to him pushing away from the attention he craves in this chapter. Why? Stay tuned!
> 
> (Also, may possibly be later with the consecutive update because REASONS but there will be a double-post to make up for it if it is. I promise the fluff's not gone entirely but we gotta get a little meat 'n bones out of the way before we can have more sweets.)

Burgerpants wasn’t quite sure how long he had been warring with his inner demons until a cold, bony finger prodded him in the cheek. 

Normally, being shocked out of his thoughts like that would have let to an ear-shattering yowl, but Burgerpants’ words had lodged in his throat. Swallowing heavily, he slowly blinked several times, bringing himself back to the reality of damp air and blinding white snow.

“was wondering if you were coming up for air any time soon,” Sans said.

Unable to speak and unwilling to look over and let someone he had just met see the emotion he was struggling to hold back, Burgerpants rubbed his reddened nose and let out a heavy sigh. As he tried to collect his thoughts, however, he felt a bony hand on his shoulder.

“hey pal, i was just messing with you,” Sans told him, concern obvious in his voice. When Burgerpants didn’t answer, the hand slipped away. 

Even without looking, Burgerpants felt a confused and worried gaze on him, but his own shame prevented him from replying. That only made him feel worse as the palatable tension grew between them. 

What kind of monster was he that he was now making a stranger worried for him? Why should anyone worry about him at all? Bad enough he was a nineteen-year-old with nothing to his name but shattered dreams and his burger-flipping prowess, but having come to the realization that he was turning out to be just like his once-idol and hated boss made him want to go bury himself at the dump.

_That’s where someone like me belongs_ , he told himself, _right amidst the rest of the garbage---_

He only just barely stopped himself from burying his face in his paws before he realized the sound of metal scraping against ice was coming closer. Burgerpants snapped his head up in time to see Bluebell skid to a sharp halt at the edge of the ice, a look of grave concern on his face. Burgerpants suddenly felt far more worse knowing that he was the cause of that concern.

Burgerpants shakily waved at Bluebell and tried to smile, but it came out as anxious and strained as it did with some of the more troubling customers he dealt with. Bluebell caught sight of who Burgerpants was sitting with and his ears briefly perked in recognition before laying back flat with trepidation once more.

“Sans?” he asked nervously, his uneasy gaze shifting between the two monsters sitting on the bench. 

“hey bluebell.”

The rabbit smiled politely and asked, “Is everything alright over here?”

Before Sans could answer, Burgerpants nodded vigorously, trying to physically will away the lump in his throat. When Bluebell plopped down on the embankment and begin to undo his skates , his words came rushing back to him in such a panic that he only just barely held back from screaming out an excuse. He tried to ignore the fact that the bunnies on the ice were starting to notice the scene.

Waving him off, Burgerpants stood abruptly. “Go back to your siblings, Bluebell,” he said, “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine,” Bluebell said. The first skate was off and two of the bunnies were making their way across the ice toward them, the rest looking on and unsure of what to do.

Attempting a wry grin, Burgerpants said, “No worries, I’m just not feeling too hot. You know, ‘cause it’s all snowy?” He shot Sans a look and hoped the f skeleton would go along with it. Sans seemed to get the message.

“ **ice** one, pal,” he said. Burgerpants found his grin felt a little more plausible with someone joking along with him. His own ears, which had been laid back from the stress, lifted a little and he shooed Bluebell back onto the ice.

“Seriously, man, I’m fine,” he reiterated. “Just a little tired is all. Think I’ll head back to the inn, yeah?”

“Then we’ll all go,” Bluebell insisted as he pulled off the other skate. “If you’re feeling unwell, it would be unwise to let you walk back alone.”

“Nah, don’t cut your outing short because of me.”

They bickered back and forth for a minute before Sans cleared his throat. Burgerpants looked over at the sentry and wondered just how a skeleton managed to clear a throat he didn’t have before Sans spoke up.

“hey, i’ll walk with him,” he suggested to Bluebell. “gotta be getting back to my station anyway, and it’s on the route.”

Burgerpants wanted to tell Sans off and say that he wasn’t a child, that he could find his way on his own. Unfortunately, he knew if he turned down the offer Bluebell would be coming after him. 

The last thing his conflicted mindset needed was to be around the rabbit’s curious, clingy siblings. 

Deciding it would be better to deal with a nosy skeleton than being put into the position where he might lash out at one of the bunnies (he really wouldn’t be able to look at Bluebell if he did that), Burgerpants agreed.

Bluebell seemed apprehensive about letting Burgerpants head off without being able to keep an eye on him, but he finally relented and slipped his feet back into his skates.

 

 

Burgerpants noticed Bluebell did not actually head back out onto the pond until he and Sans had reached the top of the hill.


	10. Kagome Kagome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we have gone from Burgerpants being confused at himself to being confused in general. You can thank Sans for that as he sorta stole this chapter. The title refers to the Japanese children’s game “Circle You, Circle You”.
> 
>  
> 
> (Originally, I had far more angsty Chapters 10-12, but then I decided that those might be better off either used in the next installment in the series or spread out over the course of the whole thing. So maybe this chapter wound up a bit sillier than some of the others.
> 
> Also, I must have accidentally hit it when I was changing tags on my phone, but I accidentally tagged “Graphic Depictions of Violence“ in the warnings. That has been removed because, apart from mentioning MTT‘s use of a chainsaw and Burgerpants‘ accidental injuries, there‘s hardly anything violent in this fic. Sorry for the confusion if anyone noticed that.)

Sans was blessedly silent for the majority of the walk. For a while, the only sounds that could be heard were the thick crunch of snow beneath their feet and the distant echo of monsters playing at the pond. 

As they walked, Burgerpants tried to turn his thoughts away from self-loathing and figure out just how he was going to come to terms with the fact that he had been prepared to _wring encouragement out of his first fan like a sopping wet sponge_ when he realized that there was something very odd going on.

Firstly, the bunnies back on the pond? Their echoing laughter was not going away entirely, but instead were waning between louder and quieter the further Burgerpants walked.

Secondly, just how many times did Sans think they could past the same half-finished Snow Lesser Dog before he noticed?

“Why are we walking in circles?” Burgerpants asked, annoyed.

“beats me,” Sans replied, “i’m following you.”

Burgerpants pressed his palms to his eyes and groaned. Did the skeleton come along just to play with him? He really was not feeling up to any games right now. Whirling around, he fixed Sans with a vicious glare.

“Look, buddy, I’m not in the mood for jokes right now--”

“yeah, kinda figured,“ Sans said shrugging, “thought you could figure out that’s why i was being quiet.” 

Burgerpants just stared at him.

“well?”

“Well what?” 

Sans swept his arm outward toward the path before them. “you going back to the inn or not?” Burgerpants nodded curtly. “then go ahead, buddy.”

Tail sharply whipping from side to side in annoyance, Burgerpants watched as Sans walked over to a large tree nearby and plopped down at the roots. The skeleton linked his arms behind his head and leaned back. Burgerpants gaped at him in equal parts shock and frustration. “What are you doing?” 

“me?” Sans asked cheekily. “just taking a breather.”

Burgerpants’ eye began to twitch in time with his heightened tail flicking. “B-but…but you just took a break!” he cried out in disbelief. Sans merely shrugged, eye sockets shifting shut. Honestly, if Burgerpants himself had goofed off as much as the lazybones before him had, Mettaton would have had him on “Cooking with a Killer Robot” ages ago -- as the main course.

_…Just how did he close his eyes with no eyelids, anyway? Does he have bone eyelids in place of flesh? Are they magic? Are--_

The cat monster shook his head and tried to return to the task at hand.

Fine. Sans didn’t want to help? No problem. He could do this. Sure, he hadn’t been paying much attention when Bluebell led him to the pond, having been preoccupied with other, more important matters.

( _‘Matters’ such as seeing how many expressions he could make Bluebell cycle through in a minute_ , his traitorous mind prompted, much to Burgerpants’ chagrin.)

Stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets, Burgerpants turned smartly on his heel and looked around. Surely, it wouldn’t be that hard to find his way back. He glanced around in attempt to find rabbit like footprints but was unable to find any save for his own and those of Sans. 

Had it snowed over the path while they were at the pond?

Throwing his shoulders back, Burgerpants picked a direction at random and headed in it.

 

 

Fifteen minutes later, he was…passing…Sans…

Confused, Burgerpants looked at the sleeping skeleton and decided to try again. This time, he headed off in another direction.

 

 

Five minutes later, there was Sans again, still propped up against the tree.

He tried again.

 

 

Sans again.

_Maybe this way_ , he said, turning around and heading directly away from the tree.

 

 

This time, Burgerpants spent a whole thirty minutes hiking through snow-bleached woodland before a very familiar-looking tree popped up in his vision. Knowing whom he would find on the opposite side, Burgerpants’ tail twitched rapidly in agitation. 

Slumping against the side of the tree, Burgerpants gritted his teeth and said, “Shouldn’t you be back at your post watching for humans?”

“i am watching for humans,” Sans said. “haven’t seen one all day.”

Tail flicking violently in irritation, Burgerpants spat, “You haven’t seen anything because your eyes have been closed!”

Chuckling, Sans cracked open an eye and looked up at Burgerpants. “pal, if there was a human anywhere near here, you would have run into them by now.”

“That’s not the point--”

That’s when Burgerpants noticed something was off. He looked ahead of Sans and then glanced up and down the snowy landscape. All of the footprints had completely disappeared! Even the start of his last trail was gone!

_Just what the hell is going on here?!_

“oh, would you look at that? seems like the path’s disappeared. huh.”

Knowing without a doubt that Sans was behind his misdirection, Burgerpants stared at the skeleton in utter bewilderment.

“Alright, Sans,” the cat monster started, “go back to your puns. This isn’t funny.”

Sans just tilted his head. “well, if you’re too tired for jokes and pranks, then how about telling me a story?” 

Burgerpants was taken aback. “What?”

“everybody at grillby’s was talking about the new class act over at the snowed inn. figured it must be you since they said the guy worked for mettaton. that, and you’re the only visitor besides undyne who’s been out this way in months.”

Staring at Sans’ perma-grin, Burgerpants only barely held back an exasperated sigh. _Great. I get my first fan AND my first stalker all in the same week._

He supposed he should feel flattered but right now, all Burgerpants felt was frustration. And a little creeped out. 

Scratching the back of his head, he said, “Fine, what kind of story?”

Sans chuckled darkly.

 

 

“how about the one where you tell me what’s really going on with you and bluebell?”


	11. A Dose of Common Sans (Sense)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***After some sans-astional hijinks in the last chapter, we finally get to Sans pulling out the truth from Burgerpants. (HINT: The truth is actually a shocker to Burgerpants himself, but not to you and I, dear audience!)

To say Burgerpants was mortified was a gross understatement. In fact, he felt all the world like a cornered mouse. He could feel his fur prickling as his sins crawled up his back. All too late, it began to dawn on the cat monster just who he was talking to:

A sentry.

One appointed by the captain of _Asgore’s elite Royal Guard_.

Of freaking _course_ there was more to the laidback, lazy shuffle of that skeleton. Nobody got appointed to anything as important as human-related duties without having been approved by _the king himself_!

Was Sans a mind-reader? Or was he just that damned good at reading people?

Without a modicum of a path to point him back toward the inn, Burgerpants realized that his only choices were to either tell Sans the truth or wait until someone realized the two of them were missing and sent out a search party. 

Unfortunately, the latter was absolutely out of the question. Burgerpants had left the pond with Bluebell thinking he was ill and, judging by how overboard the rabbit went with first aid supplies for a bloody nose, there was no telling how high-strung he might be if he thought a sick monster had gone missing. 

The last thing he needed was his own boss getting called out to report live on his least favorite employee’s supposed appearance.

_Would that be grounds for getting fired?_ , he wondered.

“Why do you want to know?” Burgerpants asked.

“snowdin’s my home, pal,” Sans said. “the monsters around here are all really good folks, and i like seeing ‘em happy.” The skeleton stood, brushing the snow off his shorts. “bluebell’s a nice guy. as a guy with a brother himself, i gotta respect somebody who takes good care of their siblings the way he does.”

That was understandable. Burgerpants found it hard enough to get along with two sisters, let alone seven of them. There was something admirable in a monster that could be so attentive to so many children all at once.

“so what‘s the deal? sparks were flying between you two back there until you shut down. unless your boss made having off switches installed as part of the job uniform and it malfunctioned, something‘s gotta be up.”

Burgerpants tried not to roll his eyes. That really WOULD be something MTT would do if he could. He shuddered at the image of him returning to work only to discover his boss and Dr. Alphys waiting on him, coils of wire and pliers in hand, eagerly anticipating turning him into a cyborg cat. 

_Freaking metal bastard probably wouldn’t even let her use anesthetic, either._

A chill ran through him as the familiar sound of Mettaton’s chainsaw revved up from within his memory banks. He hoped Sans would take it as a sign of the cold and hoped the skeleton would drop the interrogation so they could get back to the inn. When Sans didn’t respond, Burgerpants’ heart dropped to his stomach and the theory of facing down an actual mind-reader was sounding more plausible by the second.

Running a paw over his neck, Burgerpants said, “There’s nothing to tell, really. We just met the other day at the dump and I came to visit. You can hardly call us friends yet. We’ve not even talked all that much.”

One of Sans’ brow bones titled down slightly, his face practically shouting “that’s a lie and i know it”. If it had just been Bluebell chattering out on the ice, he might have stood a chance at Sans have waving it off as a valid excuse, but Burgerpants had babbled nonstop around the rabbit from the moment he walked into the kitchen the other day.

Come to think of it, maybe some of the inn patrons had gossiped about that? Or maybe Macy and Sans were friends. Yeah, that would make sense, considering those two were the only ones who had pointed out Bluebell’s potential crush on him.

Much more plausible than mind-reading. 

It would also explain why he felt like he was getting the third-degree from a protective elder sibling.

“if nothing’s going on between you two,” Sans asked, “then why did you freak out when I asked you about it?”

Burgerpants felt his world lurch like he had the air knocked out of him (seriously, his brain dramatically added the harsh, raspy sound of blow striking home and everything). 

_Oh, for the love of -- he was_ baiting _me!_

There was no chance to hide the instinctive widening of his eyes or backward twitch of his ears because it took him a whole ten seconds to pull out of his panic before he could fashion a response to Sans.

He really was in trouble now, wasn’t he?

“He…” Burgerpants started, mentally cursing himself as the telltale prickling of his facial fur began anew. “I don’t know, man.”

Burgerpants heaved a sigh. This was going to be humiliating to admit…

Taking a deep breath, Burgerpants told Sans, “I’ve wanted to be an actor almost my whole life. It’s why I got a job working for MTT to begin with. I had aspirations, but, well…” he scratched the back of his head, glancing off a little to the side and shuffling his feet uncomfortably. “It’s not been an easy time the past few years, and I was honestly starting to lose hope. It just kinda reached a new level of awful a few days ago when I wound up having to go to the dump and look for new clothes because my boss wouldn’t let me back in the building after a trash bag busted on me.”

A smile tugged at his lips as he remembered his first meeting with Bluebell.

“Up until running into Bluebell,” he admitted, “nobody’s really given me the time of day. But him? He thought my story was the funniest thing ever. I mean, a genuine laugh! He was holding onto his cart to keep himself up and everything!” 

The excitement began welling up within Burgerpants as he remembered that lilting, sweet tenor flooding his ears. His hands left his pockets, itching to make their gestural dance of reenactment. 

Almost bouncing on his feet now, Burgerpants continued. 

“And his expressions! Man, have you ever seen the way that guy’s eyes just glimmer when he’s happy? They just--” He flicked his paws open in front of his eyes like he was throwing snow out of them. “--LIGHT UP! And his ears! Really, they’re all over the place. Just…oh man,” he shook his head, chuckling fondly, before extending a hand out in the direction of where he could still hear the bunnies laughing. “I swear, it’s like watching somebody direct lobby traffic at the resort.”

He put on a super-cheerful face, throwing his hands up to mimic Bluebell’s ears, nimbly flicking them through the air. “This way I’m happy,” he flicked one hand out toward the left, the right one sharply pointed opposite a moment later. “This way I’m _really_ happy!”

Sans chuckled at his enthusiasm as Burgerpants lowered his arms. “you really have him pegged, pal.”

Burgerpants couldn’t wipe the beaming grin from his face. 

“Just…everything about the guy…” 

Burgerpants fished around for an accurate description of how to describe the exhilaration he got from Bluebell’s reactions. Failing that, he just chuckled and looked down at his feet, letting his tail whip lazily from around one leg to the next. 

“I was just venting at first, but when I saw I could make him look like _that_ , I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to see if it was just a fluke. The stories just poured out of me, and the more expressive he got, the more I found myself doing the same thing. His expressions, his laugh, his smile…They just…”

“…brought out the best in you?” Sans added.

Chuckling, Burgerpants had to agree. “Yeah. Yeah, they did. They do.”

“so you came out here as soon as you could because you wanted to see him again because he made you feel like that?”

“Yeah,” Burgerpants blinked in surprise, grin faltering a bit. “Kinda silly, huh? Coming out here over a fan.”

The brow bone quirked downwards knowingly again. “yet you didn’t head over to grillby’s with the guests from the inn,” Sans added slyly, “or stay out on the pond with the bunnies.”

The cat monster looked at Sans curiously.

“you’ve made quite a few fans here, but only one has demanded all your attention.” Sans held up a bony finger for emphasis before flicking it in the direction of the pond. “and it’s the one that brought out that crazy amount of energy. It’s made me tired just watching you.”

A chuckle escaped Burgerpants before he could stop it. “My energy wore you out enough that you had to take a nap?” Now it was his turn to quirk an eyebrow. “You sure it wasn’t all of that messing around with the snow?”

Sans chuckled but did not deny anything.

“it seems to me like---”

Suddenly, a jaunty tune split the bunny laughter-dotted silence. Sans reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. Holding up a finger, he mouthed “one moment” to Burgerpants before answering the call.

“snowdin butcher shop,” he answered grinning. “you slay ‘em, we filet ‘em.”

A loud, annoyed voice screeched through the speaker as Sans shook with silent laughter. After a moment, the voice died down, leaving Sans to answer again. A short banter continued between the skeleton and the caller for a couple of minutes, but the voice on the other end of the phone was loud enough that Burgerpants could vaguely make out what the call was about.

“…yeah, alright. love you, too, bro. tell undyne i said hi.” Sans ended the call and stuffed the phone back into his pocket. “My brother,” he explained to Burgerpants.

“I gathered as much,” Burgerpants quipped. “Did he say something about the ice?”

“yeah, seems like they finally cleared it out. You should be able to get back to hotland just fine now.”

The thought made a twinge of sadness run through him. If he left, how long would it be before he got to come see Bluebell again? Did he even really want to leave Snowdin now? It seemed like the visit was over all too soon.

Heaving a sigh, Burgerpants looked back toward the pond. “I guess I should be heading back, then.” He looked to Sans. “Mind showing me the way back to Waterfall?”

Sans walked over and looked up at the cat monster. “don’t you want to say goodbye to bluebell first? taking off without warning is kinda cold.”

Burgerpants grinned perked up. “ ** _Ice_** cold?”

Clapping him on the shoulder, Sans nodded. “c’mon, let’s head to the inn.”

 

 

It wasn’t until they were both standing outside the doors of the Snowed Inn that it dawned on Burgerpants just what Sans’ observations meant.

_…Fuck my life._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had an EXTREME amount of fun writing this. I’m talking Undyne’s cooking lessons “EXTREME” -- that’s why the all caps. It practically wrote itself. I just let my fingers type and grinned as I saw what words were coming out. I know it’s a little long but, hey, I missed a few days’ worth of updates. I really hope you all get as much enjoyment out of reading this as I did writing it. This is probably my favorite chapter out of the entire story.
> 
> Also, do you think I could really pass up the chance to play with a Papa Wolf!Sans? At the butcher shop line is actually a running joke from work; I couldn’t help throwing that in.


	12. Broken Iced Icebreakers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We go from Burgerpants acknowledging he has a crush to admitting it to Macy. We also learn that even Macy has limits to her evil -- plus we see her and Bluebell’s parents! Prepare for cutesy family feels in this chapter.
> 
>  
> 
> Only one more chapter to go! While the main series will play to the True Pacifist run, I’m thinking of doing a genocide run one-shot. Who’s for it?
> 
> (Also, it's snowing here. I'm too excited when it snows. And my feet are cold.)

Bluebell had already texted Macy long before Burgerpants got there, so the rabbit lady was not surprised to see him back so soon before the others. 

On the other hand, Burgerpants was quite surprised at being lectured the moment he walked through the door.

“Where in the Underground have you been?” Macy scolded, trotting lively out of the kitchen, taking her apron off as she went. “Bluebell told me you were on your way back because you were sick, and he’s been blowing my phone up ever since! How am I supposed to tell him how you’re doing if I have no idea where you’re at? Honestly, one more text and I was going to go looking for you myself!”

On cue, a ping sounded from her pocket, drawing an exasperated sigh from Macy. She plucked out her phone (which he noticed had so many lanyards dangling from it that it could have doubled as a baby mobile) and hastily typed a response. Not ten seconds later a reply lit up the screen, prompting another series of messages.

“He wants to know if you’re feeling worse,” she quirked an eyebrow up. “Are you?”

Burgerpants shook his head, unable to stop the slight grin on his face as he made out the upside-down conversation on Macy’s phone:

 

_  
’Mazing Macy: He just came through the door._

_**Blue: omg is he alright??? has he fallen down? oh asgore sans didnt carry in his body did he**_

_‘Mazing Macy: No, Blue, he walked in on his own two feet. Calm down._

_**Blue: he left in such a hurry and wouldnt let me go with him I thought maybe i pushed him too hard out on the ice. he did take a big spill after colliding with a snow bank earlier. how bad is he?**_

_**Blue: SIS HOW BAD IS IT TELL ME D:** _

_‘Mazing Macy: For Asgore’s sake, Bluebell, you have to give me time to ask him first!_

__

 

Burgerpants felt a twinge of guilt for making the Nice Cream vendor worry so much. He was grateful that Sans had convinced him to come back to the inn instead of just heading straight back to Hotland.

Finally ending the conversation, Macy tucked her phone back into her pocket and stood, hands on her hips, and looked Burgerpants over.

“You don’t look injured or sick,” she noted suspiciously. She waved her apron in his face. “You better not have made my brother worry over nothing, Mister Actor!”

Throwing his hands up in defense, Burgerpants told her, “Whoa, take it easy there!”

“ _YOU_ try taking it easy when you’re about to pull your fur out because your brother’s about to pull _his_ fur out!” Her brow furrowed deeply. “What are you grinning about? This is no laughing matter!”

…He was grinning, wasn’t he?

Not bothering with his smug “stage” smirk, Burgerpants let a rare genuine smile tug at his lips. Still feeling high from his conversation with Sans, it was hard to feel anxious over even the murderous glare with which Macy had him pinned. 

“Look, I really am sorry I worried Bluebell and messed up your day,” he told her, “but I really needed to get my thoughts in order.”

Almost at a growl, Macy asked, “And you couldn’t do that around Bluebell?”

The grin got wider and he shook his head. Man, did he get his sense of self-preservation knocked out of him when he hit that snow bank or what?

Macy huffed. “Well. Did you?”

Burgerpants nodded.

“I had a little help but…yeah.”

Slowly, a realization seemed to crawl into Macy’s mind as she took in Burgerpants’ countenance. Blinking owlishly, as if not believing what she was seeing, she took a step back. Then a knowing smirk broke out across her face, diminishing (but not entirely vanquishing) her frustration.

“Does that mean you two are…?”

A nervous chuckle escaped him. “No, not quite--”

“But you admit there actually is something between you two now?”

For the hell of it, he shrugged. Obviously, this was not the proper response to answering a protective big sister’s question, but he did it anyway. He was fortunate it was just Macy he was joking with, because if it had been one of his boss’ quiz shows, he might have gotten zapped with an electric shock or chased down with a chainsaw. Instead, he got a swat over the head with Macy’s apron and a very relieved smile from the innkeeper.

“It’s about time!” she told him. 

Just then, the door creaked open and in came two more rabbit monsters, both toting suitcases and tromping snow as they went. Macy’s eyes lit up and she flew at the two monsters, arms wide.

“Mom! Dad! You’re back!” she cheered, tackling both monsters in a hug (which was quite the feat considering how petite she was). Both elder rabbits chuckled at her enthusiasm and returned her happy embrace. 

_She and Bluebell really ARE siblings_ , Burgerpants thought as he watched the chipper, energetic display.

After a bit of conversation, Macy’s mother -- a tiny slip of a monster with Bluebell’s coloring -- noticed their onlooker.

“Oh, dear,” she said, “we’re being rude and taking time away from your guests.”

Macy remembered Burgerpants was still there and turned to him. “Oh, hey,” she said, “I guess this means you can go home now. Waterfall’s entrance is unblocked now.” She looked up at her parents, their presence the obvious proof.

Scratching the back of his head nervously, Burgerpants thumbed toward the kitchen. “Don’t you want my help with lunch?”

“There’s no need,” Macy told him. “I already made it.”

Macy’s parents turned to her with curious looks.

“Macy, have you been making your guests help with the housework?” Macy’s father, a tall white-furred rabbit with a bright red nose, chided. “That is hardly proper inn-keeping.”

Burgerpants stepped forward. “Actually, we made a deal. She found out I could make veggie burgers, so I wound up helping out around here as payment for room and board when we got snowed in.”

Both parents’ ears quirked attentively. “Really?” Macy’s mother asked.

“Yeah, he’s a really good cook,” Macy told her. “Pretty good comedian, too. You should hear some of his stories sometime.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea,” the elder rabbit lady said as her husband helped her out of her coat. Burgerpants realized he still had his jacket on, so he shucked it off and hung it up with the others on the coat rack. On impulse, he picked up the suitcases, looking to Macy for approval. She smiled.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that!” Macy’s mother exclaimed.

“Let the boy work out his deal, Bonnie,” the father playfully shushed her, nuzzling his nose against the top of his wife’s head. With an approving nod, he told Burgerpants, “Just put it wherever Macy has room.”

Macy gestured toward the rooms where she and her siblings lived. As Burgerpants headed off, he saw Macy coaxing her parents into having a seat on the couch instead of following them. With the promise of bringing some tea shortly, she totted off to show Burgerpants the way, the cat monster duly following after her.

 

_Man, this place is bigger than I thought._

The inn, he realized, had three floors altogether, because the owner’s living quarters were actually in the basement. Even though it was further underground than the rest of the house, it was surprisingly warm, making it feel like a den more than a basement. He supposed that was appropriate, considering the family was a bunch of rabbit monsters.

As he looked around the room, Macy told him, “Just put those anywhere. It doesn’t matter, really, because my parents are probably going to leave as soon as my siblings get back and finish lunch.”

Nodding, Burgerpants sat the two hefty cases down on one side of the door. 

When he went to head back upstairs, however, Macy drew him to the side.

“That was a good idea,” she told him. He raised an eyebrow. “Helping my parents with their luggage. You made a good first impression.” Burgerpants smirked slightly. “You might want to head out once Bluebell gets back, though.”

Burgerpants nodded. Even though he hated to end the visit, he admitted he really did need to be getting back to Hotland.

“Well, there’s _that_ ,” Macy whispered, “and then there’s my brother and his crush sharing a bed last night.”

Slowly, the feeling of being on Cloud #9 started to waft away as the brevity of what Macy meant settled in and his face began heating up.

“But we didn’t---!”

She waved off his squeaky panic. “I know, I know! But I figure you’ve already had enough to deal with meeting most of our family and being snowed in, so I’ll save you from being grilled by our parents until a later date.”

He really could have hugged Macy at that moment. Relief settling over his shoulders like a downy blanket, he thanked her. She just smiled.

“You just keep my brother laughing,” she lightly booped him on the nose and, winking, headed upstairs. 

Burgerpants rubbed his nose, wincing slightly -- both at the morning’s injury and the memories the act had tugged out. When, instead of a soft dab of a slim white-furred finger, there had been a pudgy orange paw pad and a toothy grin instead of a knowing smile.

Wrapped in nostalgia, Burgerpants trudged up the stairs.

_Maybe I’ll have that bath now…_


	13. Vacation's End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes at the end this time!

Warmed to the core from his long bath and dressed in fresh clothes, Burgerpants looked over himself.

The bathroom mirror was still slightly fogged, giving him an almost dreamy appearance. For a second, he mourned having left his jacket by the front door because it really would have boosted his suave appeal. Instead, he had to be suited with a fluffy turtleneck sweater and a thick pair of workpants, both of which had been layered atop lighter clothing that he could strip down to once he left Snowdin. There was a knit toboggan (red, a mate to his jacket) to complete the ensemble but given how hot his clothes were making him, he decided to postpone donning it until he went outside.

Taking a long look at himself, Burgerpants was surprised to see just how much he had changed over the past couple of days. The dark circles under his eyes were only slightly less dark and his eyes themselves still had their telltale stoner redness, but they didn’t look so lifeless anymore. He was standing taller and felt more power in his own movements. It was like his soul had flared back into life and the excess energy was filling him up like a balloon, straightening out his spine and puffing out his chest.

He looked…good.

_First time I’ve thought that in a long time_. 

It was a bittersweet realization. How long would his regained confidence last once he went back to that burger-flipping hellhole? He could only hope that Mettaton had broken down and hired some decent employees for once while the restaurant was being renovated (not that Burgerpants was gonna hold his breath on that one). 

With as long as it took to reopen the damn place, it would probably be ages before he could come back to Snowdin.

Ages before he could see Bluebell again.

A frown marred his reflection. He really didn’t want to think about work more than necessary before he got back to Hotland. Forcing down the gnawing anxiety that was always associated with his job-related thoughts, he put on a smile. It wasn’t quite the strained one he usually showed customers, but neither was it completely genuine. It would have to do, though. He wasn’t about to let a dreary face be the last memory he gave his first fan--

_And crush_ , he mentally added, his face heating up. _Crush_.

The concept still felt surreal. 

Being around Bluebell wasn’t like being around the two alley girls. Whereas just having them look in his direction left him stammering and feeling like a complete dunce, Bluebell made him feel empowered simply by existing. Not that he was a prolific lover in his younger years, but he figured he’d have virtually the same reaction any time he was attracted to somebody who had shown interest in him.

When he thought about it like that, it wasn’t too surprising that he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what his own feelings were.

Deep in his thoughts, he was nearly shocked out of his fur when he opened the bathroom door only to come face-to-face with the very monster who had been monopolizing his thoughts.

Bluebell, hand poised to knock, was smiling awkwardly.

“I was just coming to check on you,” he said. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,“ Burgerpants felt the tension in his face melting slowly away with the admission. The cat stared up at the rabbit, noticing the slight perking up of blue ears. There was still a concerned lilt to his brow.

_Concern I put there_ , he thought ruefully.

After a few moments of waiting for Bluebell to continue the conversation, Burgerpants cleared his throat. “Uh, so,” he scratched the back of his neck, “did you need something else?”

Bluebell’s ears shot skyward.

“Oh, right,” he let out a chuckle and then shook his head, almost as if to clear his thoughts. “Since the path to Waterfall’s unblocked, you can head home anytime.”

Burgerpants told him he already knew. Bluebell stepped back, letting Burgerpants walk out of the bathroom doorway. “Macy already packed us lunch. Of course, you’re welcome to stay and eat with everyone else, but my siblings sorta started digging in the moment they got to the table. We thought you’d want to get an early start, anyway--”

“’Us’?” the cat monster asked.

“Yeah, I figured I’d be your guide,” Bluebell said. “Of course, if you don’t want me to come along, Macy could show you. O-Or I could see if Undyne’s still at the Skeleton Brothers’ house! Yeah! I mean, that IS her jurisdiction. I passed the three of them on the way here. It wouldn’t take me more than a few minutes to…” 

Bluebell continued to ramble as he suddenly became very interested in picking at a loose thread on his sleeve. The twinge of cobalt gathering at his cheeks did not escape Burgerpants’ notice, either.

Burgerpants could hardly contain the butterflies flitting through his stomach. Just watching how Bluebell started nervously chewing on his lower lip with his small buckteeth was almost too much.

_How did I not notice those until now? They’re adorable_ , Burgerpants grinned. _He’s adorable. Man, I can’t believe anyone’s getting so flustered because of_ me _!_

Deciding to have mercy on the poor monster before he fidgeted his way into a fit, Burgerpants tugged the toboggan over his head and ears.

“If you aren’t too tired, I‘ll just follow you. I‘d appreciate it, buddy.”

Slowly, the words registered and Bluebell pulled out of his daze.

“Well, what are we waiting for, then?” the Nice Cream vendor cheered. “Let’s go!

 

 

Soft, tiny flurries swirled softly around their feet, dancing like dozens of glittering faeries across the path as the two monsters made their way toward the entrance of Waterfall. The duo had fallen into an easy rhythm of light-hearted stories as they left the settlement (Burgerpants sharing a knowing look with Sans as they passed the skeleton’s group). Though Bluebell was a fair bit taller than his feline companion, Burgerpants noticed the rabbit’s lanky stride had slowed down to keep pace with his -- or, perhaps, he himself had sped up. It was difficult to not walk faster when caught up in a passionate reenactment, after all.

Now and then, the two of them would pass another monster along the path, but Burgerpants hardly paid them any mind. While walking to the pond earlier in the day, Bluebell had been attentive towards everyone, waving cheerfully at anyone they happened to meet. Without the bunnies to look after -- when it was just Burgerpants and _him_ \-- Bluebell barely noticed, even after he nearly ran into one of the dog sentries. 

( _Dogamy? Dogaressa?_ Burgerpants couldn’t remember. It was hard to tell the difference between the pair when they had their hoods on.)

Soon, the whole world faded away into a blur of teal-tinged white snow and the grey-blue silhouettes of trees, with the only noticeable players being one cat and one rabbit.

As they walked, the gestures became less outrageous and the stories more subdued. Soon, Burgerpants realized he could not remember how long they had walked in silence. It was hard to care when Bluebell was walking beside him, his form slightly hunched over from an earlier attempt to listen better, that big, bright smile on his face, and the body heat radiating from their physical closeness.

Why did he even want to leave this…? 

If he went back to Hotland, the only way he would ever get out of Mettaton’s shadow would be if his boss took a course in humility. Considering that miracle as likely as someone destroying the barrier before his next birthday, maybe he really should rethink his career choice. Or scale it down, at least. Say….from the whole Underground to just Snowdin?

Maybe Macy could use a permanent hand at the inn. Then there was that Grillby guy. Maybe he needed some help? If Burgerpants was going to be doomed to flipping burgers for the rest of his existence, he may as well do it somewhere he was appreciated. He might not be able to beat MTT’s monopoly on Underground cable entertainment, but doing the occasional live performance at a restaurant? Doing that so often in his past had given him a taste for the grand stage in the first place.

And he would have at least one dedicated fan…

It was tempting.

It truly, truly was.

When they finally stopped at the entrance to Waterfall, it was all Burgerpants could do not to do an about-face and start fashioning himself an igloo. 

Then he remembered that probably wouldn’t be the best thing to do considering Mettaton was expecting him to come back to work. If Burgerpants went AWOL, the psychotic calculator would probably repossess his belongings (considering, y’know, he also was Burgerpants’ landlord), and Burgerpants wasn’t about to let Mettaton have a dime more than he must.

Besides, where else would he get his next stash? Burgerpants really didn’t think a place as bursting with families as Snowdin would have a dealer. He could always go back to Hotland for more or go off the stuff entirely, but…

Well, those were thoughts for another day.

“I guess this is goodbye,” Bluebell said.

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

Bluebell took a few cautious steps forward and looked around at the remaining ice. There were huge spiky chunks pushed to both sides of the opening, which was so lined with spires of ice that it almost looked like the maw of some great creature.

_I kinda feel like I’m walking straight into a beast’s mouth by going back_ , Burgerpants noted grimly before stepping up next to Bluebell. He stared into the crystal light-speckled darkness for several long moments. Bluebell shifted next to him, turning around to gaze into the cavern, too, but never said a word.

Slowly, the minutes ticked by as Burgerpants tried to come up with an appropriate goodbye.

Should he just wave and leave? Should he don his smuggest smirk, pop out a witty one-liner, and saunter on home? Should he ask Bluebell about how the rabbit felt? Should he tell Bluebell how _he_ felt? 

Eventually, Burgerpants decided to just…say whatever came to mind.

“Bluebell?”

“Yeah?”

“…Thanks.”

Bluebell smiled. “Oh, it’s no problem! I’m glad I could help, even if it was just making sure you didn’t get lost.”

“Not just that,” Burgerpants said, “everything. Helping me at the dump, inviting me here, trying to teach me to skate…”

His tail twitched nervously along the back of his legs. The butterflies in his stomach flapped torrentially, and he could feel the slight beading of sweat as his facial fur prickled from abashed reddening. He could feel Bluebell’s eyes on him and, suddenly, he became acutely aware of just how ironic it was that, not even a whole day ago, holding the rabbit’s utmost attention was what he had craved the most.

Now, however, he almost languished _from_ it instead of _for_ it.

Swallowing thickly, Burgerpants hurriedly continued. “I had a lot of fun. More than I have in ages. Just…yeah.“

“That’s great, friend,“ Bluebell chimed. “Will you visit again soon?“

Burgerpants’ heart plummeted at that. Knowing that slaver driver Mettaton, he probably wouldn‘t even be able to consider the concept of “free time“ for several months. “I…don’t think I can.“

“Huh? Why not?”

…Burgerpants really did NOT need to know that a disappointed Bluebell evoked the same feeling in him as kicking a puppy might. Not kicking just any puppy, but one that he had tenderly lulled into trust before punting it into the freaking river and watching it look back at you with a look of ultimate betrayal as it floundered around in the freezing water. 

Oh, Asgore -- he REALLY didn’t need to picture Bluebell with that look!

Mentally panicking, Burgerpants looked up at Bluebell. 

“Not that I don’t want to come back! Just the restaurant was busy enough before the renovation, so with the added hype of MTT’s new ‘Burger Emporium’--” he gestured quotation marks, “--my boss is going to run me ragged.” The strain lilted through into the uncomfortable smile that eked out when he was around difficult customers. “I really would like to hang out with you again, I just don’t know when I’ll be back this way for a while, is all.”

To Burgerpants’ utter surprise, Bluebell’s ears and smile immediately perked up.

“Then I’ll just come visit you!”

Burgerpants blinked slowly. “Wha…?”

“I’ve been meaning to branch out the Nice Cream business for a while now,” Bluebell explained. “There isn’t much call for cold treats out in a snowy place like this, and Waterfall doesn’t have a lot of potential customers. Surely, in a warm place like Hotland, there will be more of a demand.”

Burgerpants hadn’t thought of that. 

_That…that might work._

Strain rapidly disappearing from his face, the cat’s true smile shone through. “I’d like that.”

“Oh, here,” Bluebell fished around in his pocket for a moment before pulling out his phone, “let’s exchange numbers.”

Burgerpants dug out his own phone, dropping (flinging it, really) in his haste to remove it from his jacket. Fortunately, Bluebell was fast enough that he snagged it before it disappeared into the snow. The rabbit monster quickly tapped his number into the device before shooting off a message to his own phone for numerical reference.

“There we go,” he said offering the phone back to its owner, frowning slightly. “I probably should have done that earlier. Back at the pond.”

Burgerpants shook his head, saying it was fine. As he reached for his phone, he suddenly felt an intense urge to just brush his fingers against the rabbit’s. It was so strong that Burgerpants didn’t understand what brought it on. He hadn’t been wondering just how soft or silky those furred digits might be or whether they would be emitting a fiery warmth or be as cold as the air of Snowdin Forest, but now he certainly was. What would be the harm in just a simple light touch…?

Just as he reached for the phone, however, the device vibrated in Bluebell’s grasp and fell, making Burgerpants dive for it. 

“Ugh,” Burgerpants said as soon as he saw the message, “it’s from my boss.” Strangely frustrated with having his odd urge thwarted, he tapped on the screen. Just another of the robot’s damn mass-texts, this time being a reminder to watch the latest episode of “Cooking with a Killer Robot”. Burgerpants was sure the same message had been spouted over the Undernet and at the end of every segment of the rest of the day’s programming.

Tucking the phone back into his jacket pocket, Burgerpants gave a little half-wave, half-salute to Bluebell and said his goodbye. The rabbit cheerfully returned it with a wave and farewell of his own before turning around and heading back into the snowy beyond. The cat watched him go, smirking as he took note of the rabbit’s jaunty walk -- and the spirited waggle of a fluffy blue-and-white tail. 

_I have to admit, he‘s not bad looking from this angle, either_ , Burgerpants thought, humming appreciatively. After a moment, he shook his head and sauntered off into Waterfall. _Man, you’ve really got it bad, Burgerpants. You really, really do…_

 

 

 

About ten minutes later, Burgerpants received his first text from Bluebell:

_**Bluebell: hey I forgot to ask. what is your name? ^^;  
**_

 

TO BE CONTINUED…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have reached the end of this fic! Huzzah!
> 
> Firstly, this should be the last, long author’s comment that you will have to deal with on here because I have made a Tumblr! (www.darklingimp.tumblr.com)  
> I’m sure some of you get tired of my comment spamming, so a good portion of it I may put over there instead. Any prompts you all have or suggestions, please come help me out over there. 
> 
>  
> 
> Secondly, still need a name for Burgerpants, guys! So far, we have:
> 
> 1\. **Craig**  
>  2\. **Simon**  
>  3\. **Ben/Bengal**  
>  4\. **Roary**  
>  5\. **Calico**
> 
> I kinda like Ben because Bengal keeps the cat motif -- and then there’s “Ben ‘n Jerry’s’ ice cream. But I’m ALSO partial to Calico because you can shorten it to “Cal”, which is a super cool name (and also an amusing explorer-type character from the Harvest Moon games -- ONE OF MY FAV SERIES EVER!!!) Still, I’m open to suggestions, so let the names pour in!
> 
>  
> 
> Thirdly, big thanks to **BeautifulChaos56** for letting me know about the multi post. I was trying to post a new chapter right before work and I kept having problems with the italics, so I was trying to edit them right before I clocked in. Of course, bad weather meant spotty signal that morning, so I kept having to load, refresh, and backspace -- all of this on my mobile, mind you. Anyway, I was in such a rush that I hadn’t noticed the problem until this lovely person pointed it out to me. 
> 
> I can be super scatterbrained on pet projects when life's throwing me "friendliness pellets", alright?  
> That’s why I am really happy you guys have my back in making this series as awesome as it can be. Please continue to do that. I’m dedicated to making this series worthy of your time, so help me to improve by showing me ways to make it better.
> 
>  
> 
> Fourthly, I want to reiterate that this series is mostly set during the True Pacifist run, so part of it will take place once monsters get to the surface. However, I probably will do a few shots regarding Genocide Run simply for the fact that there is a lot of potential for me to unleash my inner Chara and rip out your hearts. I’ll patch them up with fluff later. ^-^
> 
>  
> 
> This has been a pleasure to write and I am so incredibly grateful for the support I have received through your comments and kudos. Even those of you who haven’t done either, thank you for taking your time to read this. Thank you all so, _so_ much. Life has been so eventful lately and, while I personally have been alright, a few of my friends and coworkers have been undergoing a great deal during the course of my writing this. Your encouragement and feedback has really meant a lot and I’ll admit, each comment has provided the boost I need to remain understanding and supportive of the ones I’ve been assisting (and, dare I say it, helped me STAY DETERMINED). 
> 
> So truly…thank you all and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
> 
> Please stay tuned for the rest of the series!


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